Arch Linux

peniwize

Member

Registered: 2014-04-08

Posts: 3

nemo looks terrible (GTK 3 theme problem?)

I'm using XFCE and the nemo file manager and nemo looks terrible.  I suspect that it's because my GTK 3 themes aren't working.  I'm fairly new to GTK themes so I don't know what to do.  This is what I get when I run nemo in a terminal:

$ nemo

** (nemo:1057): WARNING **: Couldn't register with accessibility bus: Did not receive a reply. Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a reply, the message bus security policy blocked the reply, the reply timeout expired, or the network connection was broken.

(nemo:1057): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: gtk.css:1:58: Failed to import: The resource at '/org/gnome/adwaita/gtk-main.css' does not exist

Is the parse error in gtk.css the cause of the problem?  If so then what is '/org/gnome/adwaita/gtk-main.css'?  Is that an actual path-name or is it a logical name in the gnome/GTK configuration?  I don't know how to investigate this.

I've tried making both the settings.ini file and symbolic link described here without any success:
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 02#p915402

I found this article, but I haven't tried it because I'm not sure it's the right solution:
http://tacticalvim.wordpress.com/2013/0 … d-lightdm/

berbae

Member

From: France

Registered: 2007-02-12

Posts: 1,304

Re: nemo looks terrible (GTK 3 theme problem?)

Hello and welcome.
I will advise you to install and try another gtk3 theme like gtk-theme-gnome-cupertino in AUR.
Then if you have created a link $HOME/.config/gtk-3.0 to the Adwaita theme, remove it, and create instead the $HOME/.config/gtk-3.0/settings.ini file.
And add in it:

[Settings]
gtk-theme-name = Gnome-Cupertino

The Adwaita theme is difficult to use outside a full Gnome DE.

There are other gtk3 themes, if you prefer something else (I use oxygen-gtk3).

The link trick is just a workaround, but the gtk3 theme choice should work with only the settings.ini file. So i recommend that to you.

Last edited by berbae (2014-04-08 14:31:57)

narendiran

Member

From: Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

Registered: 2011-09-07

Posts: 26

Website

Re: nemo looks terrible (GTK 3 theme problem?)

Do you have the package gnome-theme-standard installed?

peniwize

Member

Registered: 2014-04-08

Posts: 3

Re: nemo looks terrible (GTK 3 theme problem?)

berbae:

I have done as you instructed and it appears that adding '$HOME/.config/gtk-3.0/settings.ini' does not change the appearance of nemo on my system.  While looking around I found that the themes are now listed in the themes tab of 'xfce4-appearance-settings'.  When I select Adwaita or Gnome-Cupertino, the look of nemo is changed.  So this is good, but I wonder why '$HOME/.config/gtk-3.0/settings.ini' has no effect.  I assume that XFCE must override or ignore 'settings.ini'.  Here is the content of '$HOME/.config/gtk-3.0/settings.ini' on my system:

$ cat $HOME/.config/gtk-3.0/settings.ini 
[Settings]
gtk-theme-name = oxygen-gtk3

Nemo also no longer reports the parsing error in 'gtk.css', but it still reports the first warning about being unable to register with accessibility bus.  I've seen a bit of chatter on the net about this that leads me to believe that it's harmless so I'm ignoring it for now.

I installed oxygen-gtk3 with 'pacman -S oxygen-gtk3', but it doesn't appear in 'xfce4-appearance-settings'.  I suspect this is because it's only a GTK 3 theme.  Unfortunately, this prevents me from using it since '$HOME/.config/gtk-3.0/settings.ini' has no effect.

The menu bar and status bar color does not match the toolbar color when I select 'Gnome-Cupertino' in 'xfce4-appearance-settings'.  Here is a screenshot.  Does anyone know why this is?  Is there anything I can do to tweak it or is it a bug in the theme?

Do you have the package gnome-theme-standard installed?

I do have gnome-themes-standard installed.

Thanks for all the help so far.

berbae

Member

From: France

Registered: 2007-02-12

Posts: 1,304

Re: nemo looks terrible (GTK 3 theme problem?)

OK I see that Xfce4 has its own way to manage gtk themes through 'xfce4-appearance-settings', and ignores the settings.ini file.
So now you have the solution to select the Adwaita or the Gnome-Cupertino theme inside Xfce4.
You only have now to find the theme with the colors you like, or you can try to modify the colors defined inside a file (it seems gtk.css) in the theme directory.
This takes time but if you get the look you like it's worth the effort.