Dolphin file manager broken theme (not KDE Plasma)

ironhak · 2025-10-18 13:18:11

Hello

I'm on x11 i3wm, I have set a custom theme and it works on all Qt applications... But Dolphin is broken.

Here's my theming config (qt6ct, qt5ct):

Example, with Okular I just had to set the theme to "Breeze Dark" from the settings and everything worked:

If I set "Breeze Light" I would get the same weird effect of Dolphin (later pictures).

And here's dolphin:

On Dolphin there is no setting to set theme to "Breeze Dark" as with Okular, so there's no way to "fix" this. Also as you can see it doesn't follow my icon theme, despite all other Qt apps doing so.
Any other Qt apps is themed flawlessly.

Any help? Thanks guys

Last edited by ironhak (2025-10-18 13:19:27)

obap74 · 2025-10-18 14:09:32

Had the same problem on AwesomeWM and Hyprland. Just use qt6ct-kde (AUR) instead of qt6ct.

I also had to add the following in $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/kdeglobals so that Dolphin uses Papirus-Dark icon theme instead of Breeze Dark:

[Icons]
Theme=Papirus-Dark

It wouldn't work despite having Papirus-Dark set in Qt6ct.

ironhak · 2025-10-18 14:19:37

Hello, thank you. The icon trick worked... But regarding the theme nothing changed...

Last edited by ironhak (2025-10-18 14:20:45)

ironhak · 2025-10-18 14:24:28

And now also my font is not respected anymore

obap74 · 2025-10-18 14:35:20

Even after a reboot?

ironhak · 2025-10-18 14:40:59

Yes. I just tried to reboot but nothing. As soon as I uninstalled qt6ct-kde and reinstalled qt6ct the font returned.

seth · 2025-10-18 16:14:20

Example, with Okular I just had to set the theme to "Breeze Dark" from the settings and everything worked:

Why are you trying to use the gtk2 style?
Gtk is notoriously bad w/ bright on dark themes and you're now stressing that w/ a qt emulation of the gtk2 theme engine…
Pick the Qt windows style (has the Win95 look of your screenshot)

On a formal note: please don't embed oversized images (the board has a 250x250 px rule to limit mouse wheel mileage) but link just them.

ironhak · 2025-10-18 18:35:54

Why are you trying to use the gtk2 style?

Because I want all apps to follow this particular theme. Every single Qt apps is themed flawlessly (Okular, Gwenview, Qbittorrent, Qalculate ec... ). Only dolphin has this problem.

seth · 2025-10-18 18:46:13

Every single Qt apps is themed flawlessly (Okular …

with Okular I just had to set the theme to "Breeze Dark" from the settings and everything worked

Does dolphin work w/ "breeze dark"?

ironhak · 2025-10-18 18:59:15

With Okular (and Gwenview) you can go to Settings -> Color Scheme -> Breeze Dark / Light. Then when I set Breeze dark I just get correct colors for my theme (as shown on the first picture). On Dolphin there is not such option

seth · 2025-10-18 19:08:19

I thought you changed the style, not just some color scheme?
Anyway, did you see https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Dolphi … und_colors ?

ironhak · 2025-10-19 19:04:44

Yes... I tried but it doesn't work

seth · 2025-10-19 19:11:49

Please don't paraphrase, https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=57855
What does your ~/.config/kdeglobals look like and how does that "not work"?
Can't you control the color at all this way? Can you when not using the gtk2 style?

ironhak · 2025-10-19 19:21:01

This is kdeglobals file:

[
Icons]
Theme=Obsidian-Aqua

[Colors:View]
BackgroundNormal=#2e3440

It does not work meaning that changing the background color has no effect - it remains white (as per my screenshot).
This is the case even when setting a different style like Fusion or Windows.

seth · 2025-10-19 19:27:56

[
Icons]

is that a local typo or actually the format in your file?

nb. that dolphin runs a single instance by default you might have to kill all dolphin processes to get a new process, not only a new window

strace -f -o /tmp/dolphin.strace dolphin
cat /tmp/dolphin.strace | curl -F 'file=@-' 0x0.st

ironhak · 2025-10-19 19:47:49

It was a local typo, sorry.

Dolphin was not running, I rebooted in order to test the effect of that change

seth · 2025-10-19 20:43:11

Reboots won't be necessary, but please post the strace.
But apparently this is augmented by some state file?
https://github.com/prasanthrangan/hyprd … 2499737237

ironhak · 2025-10-20 09:59:50

I tried following the suggestions on the thread, still nothing
At this point I'll just avoid using Dolphin

seth · 2025-10-20 15:20:18

If you want to revisit this, please make sure to post the strace - we'd have to check whether dolphin ignores your kdeglobals entirely.

Arch Linux

#1 2025-10-18 13:18:11

Dolphin file manager broken theme (not KDE Plasma)

#2 2025-10-18 14:09:32

Re: Dolphin file manager broken theme (not KDE Plasma)

#3 2025-10-18 14:19:37

Re: Dolphin file manager broken theme (not KDE Plasma)

#4 2025-10-18 14:24:28

Re: Dolphin file manager broken theme (not KDE Plasma)

#5 2025-10-18 14:35:20

Re: Dolphin file manager broken theme (not KDE Plasma)

#6 2025-10-18 14:40:59

Re: Dolphin file manager broken theme (not KDE Plasma)

#7 2025-10-18 16:14:20

Re: Dolphin file manager broken theme (not KDE Plasma)

#8 2025-10-18 18:35:54

Re: Dolphin file manager broken theme (not KDE Plasma)

#9 2025-10-18 18:46:13

Re: Dolphin file manager broken theme (not KDE Plasma)

#10 2025-10-18 18:59:15

Re: Dolphin file manager broken theme (not KDE Plasma)

#11 2025-10-18 19:08:19

Re: Dolphin file manager broken theme (not KDE Plasma)

#12 2025-10-19 19:04:44

Re: Dolphin file manager broken theme (not KDE Plasma)

#13 2025-10-19 19:11:49

Re: Dolphin file manager broken theme (not KDE Plasma)

#14 2025-10-19 19:21:01

Re: Dolphin file manager broken theme (not KDE Plasma)

#15 2025-10-19 19:27:56

Re: Dolphin file manager broken theme (not KDE Plasma)

#16 2025-10-19 19:47:49

Re: Dolphin file manager broken theme (not KDE Plasma)

#17 2025-10-19 20:43:11

Re: Dolphin file manager broken theme (not KDE Plasma)

#18 2025-10-20 09:59:50

Re: Dolphin file manager broken theme (not KDE Plasma)

#19 2025-10-20 15:20:18

Re: Dolphin file manager broken theme (not KDE Plasma)

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