Author Topic: Desktop Background Choices? (Read 4307 times)

Far North · « **on:** October 27, 2009, 04:19:38 PM »

Phoenix/XFCE is quite nice as a program when I can see the screens. The very, very, very BLACK background on my laptop makes all the screens on the LiveCD impossible to read easily. The LiveCD seems to offer choices to change the desktop backgrounds but they do not appear to work. The screen just stays BLACK.

If I install the LiveCD, do I get the choice/opportunity to change the background colour of ALL screens from black to a far lighter shade? I would like to work with XFCE but not in BLACK.

I looked at a another posting about "black on black" where it was suggested to go to an XFCE website and download a background. However the vast majority of those are also BLACK toned.

Can I bring in the 2009.2 desktop background and software screens in the pleasant light blue?

You may get the idea I do not like BLACK screens...

Far North

Joble · « **Reply #1 on:** October 27, 2009, 04:26:52 PM »

ROFL! The original was white, and no one liked it. Now it's black, and no one likes it. ROFL! Except ME! I love it!

Crow · « **Reply #2 on:** October 27, 2009, 05:00:09 PM »

Quote from: Joble on October 27, 2009, 04:26:52 PM

ROFL! The original was white, and no one liked it. Now it's black, and no one likes it. ROFL! Except ME! I love it!

there's two of us

parnote · « **Reply #3 on:** October 29, 2009, 12:23:12 PM »

Make that three ... I love the dark theme!

parnote

Far North · « **Reply #4 on:** October 29, 2009, 07:37:35 PM »

joble, crow, parnote: I am not against anyone else liking the BLACK background for Phoenix. I am just not one who likes it, That is the underlying message of this thread. Your votes are counted but I am more interested in a response to my question:

Can I bring in the 2009.2 desktop background and software screens in the pleasant light blue?

My old (2006 when it was "refurbished", actual age unknown: Gateway "64-bit Powerhouse -- AMD Turion and 1 GB Memory) laptop has always had STRONG blacks on any screen. However, when the entire screen is black, it is very, very, very BLACK. Hence my question in this forum. Even the orange Phoenix logo is mainly washed out.

Gentlemen, enjoy your version of Phoenix as it appears on your computers. I would very much like to use Phoenix but it's not comfortable when all the screens are BLACK on my system.

I would appreciate confirmation that I can change the layout of ALL screens in Phoenix if I install it and that the change(s) are easy to make. I'm typing this using 2009.2 KDE and really enjoy the screen colour -- white text box for these words surrounded by a light blue background with darker blue box across the top stating " Post Reply " in black letters, bold font. Can I get it in Phoenix? If so, from where?

Thank you,
Far North

Joble · « **Reply #5 on:** October 29, 2009, 07:42:20 PM »

Don't get me wrong. Was just making a point I guess. I've never changed the theme in phoenix so I don't know the answer to your question. I hope you get one though. One thing about Linux, you can make it the way you like it, if you know how. It's just that, I don't.

Crow · « **Reply #6 on:** October 29, 2009, 08:00:07 PM »

thank you for counting my vote

I promise to investigate this weekend and post back because nobody at home changed the theme

Crow · « **Reply #7 on:** October 29, 2009, 08:45:19 PM »

In the meantime I found this, I hope is useful http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,63215.0.html

Far North · « **Reply #8 on:** October 30, 2009, 08:20:12 AM »

Good morning, Crow.

I had followed the link ("xfcr"... after correcting the typo) earlier on in my search. It would seem that this is the only place to make it easier to read my screen. I had looked through a number of pages of the screen choices available from the contributors. However, using the LiveCD, I hadn't tried downloading any of them.

I'll try later today (off to work now...) to see if I can get any of the choices to work on the LiveCD. If not, I guess my choice is to install Phoenix and see if I can change the backgrounds "live". Otherwise, my other alternatives are 2009.2 or LXDE...

Your assistance is appreciated.

Far North

seaoffear · « **Reply #9 on:** November 01, 2009, 03:21:23 AM »

Here are some alternative themes for xfce: http://www.xfce-look.org/index.php?xcontentmode=420

Download, extract and then copy/move to the /.themes folder. The /.themes folder is hidden, so open file manager and click view and mark show hidden files and you will see all /.folders.

Then open xfce 4 settings manager, choose appearance and you should see the new themes. Having it open while extracting new themes to the .themes folder will not update it you have to go back to the overview and choose appearances again.

Choose the theme and you will see the changes immediately.

Good luck!

Quote from: Far North on October 27, 2009, 04:19:38 PM

Phoenix/XFCE is quite nice as a program when I can see the screens. The very, very, very BLACK background on my laptop makes all the screens on the LiveCD impossible to read easily. The LiveCD seems to offer choices to change the desktop backgrounds but they do not appear to work. The screen just stays BLACK.

If I install the LiveCD, do I get the choice/opportunity to change the background colour of ALL screens from black to a far lighter shade? I would like to work with XFCE but not in BLACK.

I looked at a another posting about "black on black" where it was suggested to go to an XFCE website and download a background. However the vast majority of those are also BLACK toned.

Can I bring in the 2009.2 desktop background and software screens in the pleasant light blue?

You may get the idea I do not like BLACK screens...

Far North

Crow · « **Reply #10 on:** November 01, 2009, 06:35:46 PM »

Ok, Far North, as some said you can go to xfce-look.org and choose a theme (a gtk theme, that is important) extract and put it in the / .themes folder which is hidden.

Then go to start button - system - configuration - other - and click gtk-theme-switch or gtk-theme-switch2 I guess you can follow from here, a tip, at first chose a clearlooks theme you will see the difference immediately. I think Clearlooks is included by default so you can avoid the xfce-look.org visit step

Good luck

Far North · « **Reply #11 on:** November 02, 2009, 11:09:46 AM »

Thanks, Crow. I guess today, November 2 is something special somewhere but it isn't good. Your avatar indicates that. Interesting to see but I'm not sure how to respond to it...

Back on topic, I'm typing this in Phoenix -- Black text box and black font so kindly disregard any typos. I can't see what I'm doing.

I'll try to download a theme onto the LiveCD, but don't think it'll work. My other choice is to figure out how to add a second OS onto my HDD and install Phoenix. It's been a few years since I've had two and am sure it's "simple". However, at my age, memory is not as sharp as it used to be.

Will report if I'm successful.

Again, please excuse any typos. I see that there are two words underlined with red dots but I think they're "normal words", not typos...

Far North

Crow · « **Reply #12 on:** November 02, 2009, 03:44:41 PM »

Did you use the gtk-theme-switch or gtk-theme-switch2 options? Is not that difficult to have two PCLOS in one machine, this one has KDE3.5 in one partition and I'm writing in other labeled KDE4 Testing

there are several posts about it in the forums but if you have problems try a new thread.

Today is for show respect to the members of our family that are not longer in this world, remember what they did in life and maybe pray a little.

In some places people bring the food and drinks that the deceased most liked in life and leave it at the tomb or at the altar made by the occasion, it has 7 levels http://www.cancunforos.com/images/altares.jpg . Here in my city you only bring flowers to the cemetery, some of us still leave a bottle of something, must be hard without a tequila or two at the other side $:-\$

The avatar is from José Guadalupe Posada http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Guadalupe_Posada a cartoonist whose work contributed to the identity of my country; he's known for a phrase that translated is more or less "Death is democratic, because all the people, white or brown, rich or poor, at the end is just a skull"

I like the tradition because I believe that if you are aware that you can die the next day (or moment) you put more focus on the important things, your family, the meaning of your work; only those that think that they will last forever can waste their time.

NormanF · « **Reply #13 on:** November 20, 2009, 06:25:39 PM »

GTK Oxygen Molecule theme brings back a pleasing white. I haven't figured out how to mute the menu title bars... yet - they're still black!

mikkl · « **Reply #14 on:** December 30, 2009, 07:08:14 AM »

Quote from: NormanF on November 20, 2009, 06:25:39 PM

GTK Oxygen Molecule theme brings back a pleasing white. I haven't figured out how to mute the menu title bars... yet - they're still black!

Please report back if you have any success with the menus. I am trying Phoenix in a VirtualBox session and I have tried several of the themes in the Appearance area and all keep the menus in the glossy black. I find the glossy highlights of the menus pretty but distracting and difficult to read. I am beginning to suspect that there is something wrong/broken with the theme installation/management as I find it difficult to believe that a theme titled "Redmond" would have black menus and dark gray window backgrounds yet that is precisely what I have in this install.

===Update===

I have been running two versions of XFCE side-by-side in virtualbox, Phoenix and zen-gnome with XFCE. I must admit that given the two desktops, I find the Phoenix theme much more pleasing and easier to use then I have been able to configure the other version.

Phoenix is growing on me daily.

mikkl

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