LXDE - theme stuck on clearlooks

[stricktoo]

Everything else in the LXDECC works fine. Other local settings, like the Openbox theme, the cursor theme and the wallpaper, can be changed without a problem. I don't know why the GTK & icon themes won't. I thought maybe a config file was out of place, but copying the config file from /usr/share/lxde to ~/.config/lxde (those paths might not be totally correct - I don't have the VM running at the moment) didn't do anything. Maybe it wasn't the right file, or maybe I copied it to the wrong place?

[qbrick]

I must be living in a parallele universe. Here the Germans are in the WC final and the solution above eliminates the problem with the 'GTK and Icon Theme' tool.
The /usr/share/lxde/config file in my universe seems to be a global config file overriding user settings or to put it the other way around, it grants users to config this or that.
Neal, if you as root put a comment sign at the beginning of every line in this file, every user on the system user will be able to change his/her settings with the 'GTK & Icon Theme' tool.

[Neal ManBear]

qbrick,
Yes, but stricktoo is saying that isn't working on his system.

stricktoo,
Check in Synaptic to see what GTK themes you have installed.

[qbrick]

stricktoo, I'm not quite sure, what's going on, since in yesterday's post you said:

Moreover editing /usr/share/lxde/config is only partly successful. The theme will change, but the icons won't.

And today, you said, that GTK & icon themes cannot be changed. So, is it possible at least to change the GTK themes with 'lxappearance'?

Could you please show us your /usr/share/lxde/config file?

[stricktoo]

stricktoo,
Check in Synaptic to see what GTK themes you have installed.

After searching Synaptic for specific theme names, as well as for "themes", "gtk" and "gtk-themes" I can't find any of them. The only potentially relevant result was "gtk-engines2".

From the LXDECC, here's what I have installed:

GTK Themes (Items in Green were installed by default. Items in Red were installed by me)
- Redmond
- Bluecurve-Strawberry
- Crux
- Bluecurve
- Bluecurve BerriesAndCream
- Flat
- Raleigh
- Thinice
- Bluecurve-Tangerine
- Bluecurve-Gnome
- Mist
- Industrial
- Bluecurve-Slate
- Clearlooks
- Bluecurve-Grape
- Bluecurve-Lime
- Arc-Dust
- Shiki-Wise
- Shiki-Brave
- Shiki-Illustrious
- Shiki-Dust
- Shiki-Human
- Shiki-Noble
- Shiki-Wine

Icon Themes
- GNOME
- nuoveXT.2.2
- nuoveXT-areo
- Oxygen
- GNOME-Wise
- GNOME-Brave
- GNOME-Illustrious
- GNOME-Dust
- GNOME-Human
- GNOME-Noble
- GNOME-Wine

stricktoo, I'm not quite sure, what's going on, since in yesterday's post you said:

Moreover editing /usr/share/lxde/config is only partly successful. The theme will change, but the icons won't.

And today, you said, that GTK & icon themes cannot be changed. So, is it possible at least to change the GTK themes with 'lxappearance'?

Could you please show us your /usr/share/lxde/config file?

Sorry for the confusion. I've managed to change the GTK theme by manually editing /usr/share/lxde/config. However that method failed to change the icon theme. And I can't change either GTK or icon themes via the LXDECC.

Here's my /usr/share/lxde/config. The only lines I've modified are sNet/ThemeName=Shiki-Dust and sNet/IconThemeName=nuoveXT-aero.

Code: [Select]

[GTK]
#iNet/DoubleClickTime=400
#iNet/DoubleClickDistance
#iNet/DndDragThreshold
#iNet/CursorBlink
#iNet/CursorBlinkTime
sNet/ThemeName=Shiki-Dust
sNet/IconThemeName=nuoveXT-aero
sGtk/FontName=Sans 10
#iGtk/IconSizes
#sGtk/KeyThemeName
iGtk/ToolbarStyle=3
#iGtk/ToolbarIconSize
#iGtk/IMPreeditStyle
#iGtk/IMStatusStyle
sGtk/FileChooserBackend=
iGtk/ButtonImages=1
iGtk/MenuImages=1
sGtk/CursorThemeName=
iGtk/CursorThemeSize=18
iXft/Antialias=1
#iXft/Hinting
#iXft/HintStyle
#iXft/RGBA
#iXft/DPI
#sNet/FallbackIconTheme=hicolor
#iGtk/TouchscreenMode

[Mouse]
AccFactor=20
AccThreshold=10
LeftHanded=0

[Keyboard]
Delay=500
Interval=30


[qbrick]

Hello stricktoo, just change these lines

sNet/ThemeName=Shiki-Dust
sNet/IconThemeName=nuoveXT-aero
sGtk/FontName=Sans 10

so that they look like this:

#sNet/ThemeName=Shiki-Dust
#sNet/IconThemeName=nuoveXT-aero
#sGtk/FontName=Sans 10

Now, everything in this file you changed from a value to a comment is now configurable with lxappearance by any user.

That's all.

[stricktoo]

Hello stricktoo, just change these lines

sNet/ThemeName=Shiki-Dust
sNet/IconThemeName=nuoveXT-aero
sGtk/FontName=Sans 10

so that they look like this:

#sNet/ThemeName=Shiki-Dust
#sNet/IconThemeName=nuoveXT-aero
#sGtk/FontName=Sans 10

Now, everything in this file you changed from a value to a comment is now configurable with lxappearance by any user.

That's all.

That works, although I sometimes have to log out and then back in for all of the changes to take effect. Thanks!

[Neal ManBear]

That works, although I sometimes have to log out and then back in for all of the changes to take effect. Thanks!

That is normal. If you use lxcursor to change your cursor theme, at the end of running it, it will log you out. (optionally you can postpone the logout)

[stricktoo]

That works, although I sometimes have to log out and then back in for all of the changes to take effect. Thanks!

That is normal. If you use lxcursor to change your cursor theme, at the end of running it, it will log you out. (optionally you can postpone the logout)

After more tinkering, I've learned that the only thing that persists until after restarting the session is the My Documents folder on the desktop. And I can't get rid of the stupid thing without disabling PCManFM as the desktop settings manager. Oh well.

[qbrick]

Yeah, I was trying to get rid of this one, too, as I prefer a desktop without icons, but it seems, that it is hardcoded somehow.
Still the advantages of Neal's LXDE are overwhelming, so I got used to it.
In your case, the Openbox set of PCLinuxOS would be an option, with tint2 as a panel and OB managing the desktop. Right-click application menus are the slickest solution for desktops, but not easy for people to adapt to.

[stricktoo]

Yeah, I was trying to get rid of this one, too, as I prefer a desktop without icons, but it seems, that it is hardcoded somehow.
Still the advantages of Neal's LXDE are overwhelming, so I got used to it.
In your case, the Openbox set of PCLinuxOS would be an option, with tint2 as a panel and OB managing the desktop. Right-click application menus are the slickest solution for desktops, but not easy for people to adapt to.

I found a somewhat kludgy solution. First, disable PCManFM as the desktop manager, which will completely eliminate all desktop icons. Then install another program for managing wallpapers. I'm using Nitrogen, which is in the repos. I've also heard good things about Feh (also in the repos), but it's a command line program and I haven't figured it out yet.

I'm finding that I prefer the right click application menu. It's a lot more convenient. I even have tint2 set to display it when right clicked, so I can access it when a maximized window obscures the desktop. I also tend to use Run dialogs (e.g. Krunner in KDE; I'm not sure what it's called in LXDE) via keyboard shortcut, which almost eliminates the need for a menu.

I haven't used the Openbox version much, but I plan on testing it in the near future. I'm especially interested to see how application menu updates are handled (i.e. how newly installed programs are added to the menu). Under LXDE the Openbox-style application menu is pretty sparse, and I'm not sure how to add all of the installed applications without laborious manual editing of the xml file.

[qbrick]

I'm especially interested to see how application menu updates are handled (i.e. how newly installed programs are added to the menu). Under LXDE the Openbox-style application menu is pretty sparse, and I'm not sure how to add all of the installed applications without laborious manual editing of the xml file.

There is a simple gui-based menu-editor for Openbox, but I can't recall what its name is. It works just like any other menu-editor and is quite intuitive (the OB menu is read from xml file and lacks support for application icons yet iirc).

With LXDE, when adding a menu entry as a user, I have to make a .desktop file for the application I want to add and then go to command line and make a xdg-desktop-menu install --novendor /path/to/application.desktop. Quite a procedure.

[Neal ManBear]

When new applications are installed (with Synaptic) a .desktop file is created in /usr/share/applications. When there is a .desktop file in /usr/share/applications, there will be a menu entry.

[qbrick]

That's true for programs installed from the repos as you said.
In my case, I have some programs installed in $HOME/bin (mostly games like NWN or HoMM3). To add a user-specific menu item is a bit inconvenient as there seems to be no application directory in $HOME, where I could put a desktop file to update my application list. Well, there are a few, but they seem to be ignored by LXDE.

[Neal ManBear]

There are reasons why installing from outside sources is not officially supported. One of those is the possibility of causing system problems that are impossible to diagnose.

That said, I repeat myself -- New .desktop files in /usr/share/applications are added to the menu.