force a theme to apps that won't comply?

rob

I was playing around with installing themes via the software center and really like the Arc theme. However I have a couple of apps that do not respect the theme, namely Librewolf and Cheese

I also have several applications that do recognise the theme but don't have the same padding as the system apps.

Is there a relatively simple way to fix these? Thanks in advance

Scotty-Trees

Are any of these flatpak apps by chance?

rob

Scotty-Trees librewolf for sure is flatpak, cheese too lol I did install cheese via eopkg but when I tried to make a video it crashed 😅

PoorPocketsMcNewHold I don't have any snap packages, but thanks for the tips on snap and thank you for the theme suggestion too. [Edit] just looked at the github link you sent, realise now that pakitheme isn't a theme it forces flat hub to use your theme 😉 I really should take more time to read properly - thanks again!

seanragout thank you, I will try this later today when I'm back at my laptop.

I wondered also if it had anything to do with the theme version? It seems, the arc theme available through eopkg is no longer maintained? https://github.com/arc-design/arc-theme (I'm pretty sure this is correct but would have to double check.) I wondered if it might be worth manually installing the newer version too? https://github.com/jnsh/arc-theme

PoorPocketsMcNewHold

If it is indeed flatpak apps, pakitheme does wonders.

Otherwise, check if those applications aren’t run in root, since the Budgie desktop applet doesn’t set the default GTK theme for the root user.

If those are snaps, the theming process is a bit more difficult due to the secure compartimenzation.
You need to, either, check if your favorite GTK theme has been published on the snap store (likely doesn’t) and connect it to other applications by doing a :
for i in $(snap connections | grep gtk-common-themes:gtk-3-themes | awk '{print $2}'); do sudo snap connect $i SNAPGTKTHEMEPACKAGENAME; done
Do install and replace the SNAPGTKTHEMEPACKAGENAME with your gtk theme, of course.

Finally, do check if those specific applications doesn’t have current issues with their GTK theming, in their respective repository or issue tracker.

seanragout

If they are flatpak themes try this;

sudo flatpak override --filesystem=~/.themes

It works for me

rob

seanragout this works but not for my theme... I think I know why it didn't work when it didn't, basically I don't have a theme that uses the .themes folder. Because I installed the arc theme via eopkg it doesn't put the it in that folder.

I tried putting the newer arc version in the .themes folder but the system just can't read it and I'm not sure how you seperate out the different versions (light, darker, dark etc.)

I tried another theme put it in .themes and I believe the sudo flatpak override --filesystem=~/.themes
did indeed apply it to my flatpaks correctly.

I guess I need to build the arc theme from scratch and use only what I need... but yeah, not entirely sure about how to do that really 😅 guess I need to read some of the meson documentation.

Thanks again!

Scotty-Trees

rob You're going to want to read this, it's a quick read btw: https://www.linuxuprising.com/2018/05/how-to-get-flatpak-apps-to-use-correct.html

Essentially, you have flatpaks installed, but don't have the corresponding flatpak theme installed. This can happen when whatever theme you were using at the time when you installed the flatpaks apps, flatpak used that theme if it had it in its repos. Arc is a popular theme so it is indeed in their repos, chances are you just weren't using that theme at the time you installed the flatpaks, so flatpak didn't install the arc theme for you. Generally if you change your themes around, flatpak isn't going to automatically install the correct flatpak theme, you'll have to do that manually. This is a simple process though to fix. In your case, just to be on the safe side, close all your apps (save your work of course first), and open a terminal. I'd recommending using the terminal in a full sized window btw, it's going to help for this:

flatpak remote-ls flathub | grep org.gtk.Gtk3theme

This is going to show you all the available themes flatpak has in their repos. In your case you want to install one or more of these:

Arc-Dark-solid Gtk theme	org.gtk.Gtk3theme.Arc-Dark-solid		3.22
Arc-Dark Gtk theme	org.gtk.Gtk3theme.Arc-Dark		3.22
Arc-Darker-solid Gtk theme	org.gtk.Gtk3theme.Arc-Darker-solid		3.22
Arc-Darker Gtk theme	org.gtk.Gtk3theme.Arc-Darker		3.22
Arc-solid Gtk theme	org.gtk.Gtk3theme.Arc-solid		3.22
Arc Gtk theme	org.gtk.Gtk3theme.Arc		3.22

Run this command to install the Arc Gtk theme. If this doesn't work you might have to try the Arc-solid gtk theme fyi:

flatpak install flathub org.gtk.Gtk3theme.Arc

Try to open up cheese or librewolf now and it should be using your correct flatpak theme that matches your system. Anytime you change your theme, you have to manually install the matching flatpak theme if they have it in their repos, so it's something to be aware of. Hope that helps ya.

If the first theme command didn't work, then try this one as a backup (you dont need this is the first one work):

flatpak install flathub org.gtk.Gtk3theme.Arc-solid

rob

Scotty-Trees Thank you, I ran the flatpak install flathub org.gtk.Gtk3theme.Arc command and it works.

I took a screenshot with some apps:

Librewolf (flatpack) - no transparency.
Softwarecenter (eopkg) - transparency with arc theme from softwarecenter.
Rhythmbox (eopkg) - no transparency and also has a narrower title bar compared to software center.
Cheese (flatpak) - dark theme (which is fine) but it does have the transparency
Kdenlive (flatpak) - not bothered about the toolbar being slighty different just a better example of the narrower title bar.

Most of my flatpaks have the narrower title bar with no transparency (but so do some of the eopkg apps) is that just inherent to using themes? or is there a way to make the title bars the same height?

Regarding the transparency I don't mind either way, if the windows are solid or transparent, but I think it would be nice if they were the same. I'm going to take a guess and say it's easy to make the flatpaks all non-transparent based on the 'solid' suffix on code you posted. Is there a way to force non-transparency on the system gtk theme or force transparency on the flatpak apps?

If you think the theme is running as expected that's cool! I understand you can't always have exactly what you want!

Thanks again!

Scotty-Trees

rob The arc theme that Solus uses (and other distros too for that matter) are not exactly 100% the same as the arc theme that flatpak distributes. This is because the maintainers are different, so there may or may not be some minor differences with OS base level themes and flatpak themes. In my experience these have all been very minor, but noticeable differences depending on the theme used. There are other ways to make (aka force) flatpaks to use your default theme, but I haven't tested those ways because for the most part my flatpak themes are worked as intended. I will warn, sometimes if you're messing around with themes' stuff a bit too much, you can break some stuff. If you really want to test going crazy with editing themes I would recommend using Boxes with an iso of Solus and testing out your theme changes there first, before committing doing it on your actual install. Its a bit of overkill, but its safe and ensures you don't mess up your system in any unintended way. Sorry I can't be of much help beyond what you have which is working well I might say.

rob

Scotty-Trees No worries! thanks again 😃

seanragout

rob
Try redirecting the command to root folder where the system arc theme is installed

rob

seanragout I'm not sure where that is? Is it: /usr/share/themes ?

seanragout

rob
yep that should work

rob

seanragout Thanks!