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Artyom

Member

Registered: 2017-03-27

Posts: 68

[Partialy solved] Gnome 42, I don't understand how theming works now.

Hi!

Today my setup made the update to Gnome 42.
First, I had to disable extension version checking because it breaks nearly all of them.
Now my theming is break. I understand they want to make app look uniform but for now this is not the case.
I now have two settings for GTK theming, the regular one and one for "old applications".
I use "arc-gotham-solid-gtk-theme" but it is now broken because of this, "old" apps are working but "new" one use gnome default even if I set the theme in gnome-tweaks.
Exemples:
In gnome tweaks both "shell" and "old applications" are set to "arc-dark".
dash-to-panel bar work properly with the right theme
arc-menu is using the default theme
nautillus is using default theme

So my question is, how do I make gnome use the GTK custom theme system wide like before?
Thanks!

Last edited by Artyom (2022-04-08 13:07:54)

spsf64

Member

From: FL, US or SP, BR

Registered: 2012-05-18

Posts: 102

Website

Re: [Partialy solved] Gnome 42, I don't understand how theming works now.

The worst thing is some apps do not follow the current theme, despite all being version 42.
Check this image...
https://imgur.com/dl9bQk4
edit: my default theme is dark
edit2: btw, this is cinnamon DE, but it also happens with XFCE, just checked

Last edited by spsf64 (2022-04-07 15:57:43)

---

Sergio S.

Artyom

Member

Registered: 2017-03-27

Posts: 68

Re: [Partialy solved] Gnome 42, I don't understand how theming works now.

So from what i've found.
These issue are mainly due to Gnome going from GTK3 to GTK4/libadwaita. Also gnome is not entirely port wich mean some windows uses old school theme.
Wich mean nearly all theme are not ready.
But one thing that really annoy me is that even if you found a compatible theme with both old and new gnome support to make it uniform, you will still have some windows using the new default adwaita theme.

Last edited by Artyom (2022-04-07 16:54:49)

j@s0n

Member

Registered: 2020-08-15

Posts: 47

Re: [Partialy solved] Gnome 42, I don't understand how theming works now.

I'm having this issue with evince. I was using the Arc dark theme, but evince opens up bright white. I tried changing various values in

~/.config/gtk-[34].0/settings.ini

and nothing seems to work.

I ended up downgrading to evince-41.* to fix the issue.

Last edited by j@s0n (2022-04-07 20:17:38)

ooo

Member

Registered: 2013-04-10

Posts: 1,638

Re: [Partialy solved] Gnome 42, I don't understand how theming works now.

As already mentioned, this is due to GNOME applications switching to using libadwaita, which doesn't allow old style GTK theming. Therefore those applications will use the default Adwaita theme, regardless of your GTK4 configuration.

If you just want to change between light/dark Adwaita theme, you can change the Style in Appearance tab in gnome-control-center.

If you're not using GNOME, the style preference can be changed from command line with:

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface color-scheme default # for light Adwaita
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface color-scheme prefer-dark # for dark Adwaita

EDIT. The above gsettings require gsettings-desktop-schemas, if I'm not mistaken.

If you want to use themes other than the default, it can be forced even for libadwaita applications with GTK_THEME=<theme_name> environment variable. Note, that any custom GTK themes needs additional styling for libadwaita, or applications using it will look broken. (Arc-theme includes libadwaita styling, not sure about any other themes.) Also forcing the theme may cause issues with applications that would like to control their own GTK theme.

Last edited by ooo (2022-04-08 14:16:44)

Artyom

Member

Registered: 2017-03-27

Posts: 68

Re: [Partialy solved] Gnome 42, I don't understand how theming works now.

As already mentioned, this is due to GNOME applications switching to using libadwaita, which doesn't allow old style GTK theming. Therefore those applications will use the default Adwaita theme, regardless of your GTK4 configuration.

If you just want to change between light/dark Adwaita theme, you can change the Style in Appearance tab in gnome-control-center.

If you're not using GNOME, the style preference can be changed from command line with:

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface color-scheme default # for light Adwaita
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface color-scheme prefer-dark # for dark Adwaita

If you want to use themes other than the default, it can be forced even for libadwaita applications with GTK_THEME=<theme_name> environment variable. Note, that any custom GTK themes needs additional styling for libadwaita, or applications using it will look broken. (Arc-theme includes libadwaita styling, not sure about any other themes.) Also forcing the theme may cause issues with applications that would like to control their own GTK theme.

Using GTK_THEME=<theme_name> only gives me the default white theme. Tested with Arc based theme on gnome-control-center and gnome-extensions-app.
Nautilus just default to libadwaita even with GTK_THEME.
Maybe i'm doing something wrong, maybe GTK3 support is just gone.

toz

Member

Registered: 2011-10-28

Posts: 498

Re: [Partialy solved] Gnome 42, I don't understand how theming works now.

Try:

GTK_THEME=Arc:dark gnome-control-center

This works for me to display gnome-control-center using the dark version of the Arc theme.

Artyom

Member

Registered: 2017-03-27

Posts: 68

Re: [Partialy solved] Gnome 42, I don't understand how theming works now.

Ok forget what i have said, arc-gotham-gtk-theme is not at all supported.
Testing the "GTK_THEME=<theme_name>:<dark|light>" way gives good results with the community arc-gtk-theme package and Kripton (another gnome "ready" theme).
Some elements are still displayed with libadwaita default. All elements from system tray/bar, Arc menu, system tray, notification etc...
Marking this as Partially solved, this gnome version (42) is just not ready to make theming consistant system wide.

ooo

Member

Registered: 2013-04-10

Posts: 1,638

Re: [Partialy solved] Gnome 42, I don't understand how theming works now.

Some elements are still displayed with libadwaita default. All elements from system tray/bar, Arc menu, system tray, notification etc...

You're using gnome-shell? Those are not part of any GTK application, but the shell itself, and therefore the GTK theme makes no difference for them. They can be styled with custom gnome-shell themes. This is not different from previous GNOME releases either.

Nautilus just default to libadwaita even with GTK_THEME.

Nautilus 42 is still GTK3, so no libadwaita there.

Last edited by ooo (2022-04-08 14:44:40)

Artyom

Member

Registered: 2017-03-27

Posts: 68

Re: [Partialy solved] Gnome 42, I don't understand how theming works now.

Some elements are still displayed with libadwaita default. All elements from system tray/bar, Arc menu, system tray, notification etc...

You're using gnome-shell? Those are not part of any GTK application, but the shell itself, and therefore the GTK theme makes no difference for them. They can be styled with custom gnome-shell themes. This is not different from previous GNOME releases either.

Indeed. In fact Arc theme still work like a charm with it. But more recent theme like Krypton present glitch where some part are using GTK colors sheme and some other don't.
Here are some examples:
Default theme
https://ibb.co/BKjJND8
Arc theme
https://ibb.co/YpsbL1d
Kripton theme
https://ibb.co/hHKhBVT
As you can see, the last one doesn't work well as it mix default and kripton theme. But it surely is a bug with the theme itself. I will test with flat-remix, it seems to support new gnome.

Nautilus just default to libadwaita even with GTK_THEME.

Nautilus 42 is still GTK3, so no libadwaita there.

It seems Nautilus use GTK theme only if I boot with the environment variable set.
If I launch it like this "GTK_THEME=Arc:dark" it doesn't use it.

Mod edit: Replaced oversized images with URLs. Please read the General Guidelines and adhere to the image posting rules. -- WorMzy

Last edited by WorMzy (2022-04-09 11:55:33)

ooo

Member

Registered: 2013-04-10

Posts: 1,638

Re: [Partialy solved] Gnome 42, I don't understand how theming works now.

Indeed. In fact Arc theme still work like a charm with it. But more recent theme like Krypton present glitch where some part are using GTK colors sheme and some other don't.

Shell themes must be updated against the changes in each gnome-shell release. If anything looks wrong you should report it to the theme's developer. Broken themes fall back to styling from the default gnome-shell theme, not GTK. This has not changed from previous GNOME releases.

It seems Nautilus use GTK theme only if I boot with the environment variable set.
If I launch it like this "GTK_THEME=Arc:dark" it doesn't use it.

Any GTK3 applications still use the theme setting from e.g. gnome-tweaks, unless you override it with GTK_THEME. Again, nothing has changed with the GTK3 theming during this cycle. Also note the nautilus keeps running in the background even if you close all windows, and running it from command line in that situation doesn't take new environment variables into account. You can close the background nautilus process with 'nautilus -q'.