Some GTK3 programs do not react to themes at all

Tenrag · 2016-08-28 16:10:24

As the subject says:
Some of the programs that are gtk3 only, for example: catfish, file-roller, gtk3-demo, etc.
do not react to themes at all. And when I say 'at all' I mean I cycled through all my themes:

ls /usr/share/themes says:

Adept      Crux           Fbx                 Kindaker    Opta          Slimline     Tyrex         Xfce-kde2
Adwaita    Cruxish        G2                  Kleanux     Oroborus      Smallscreen  Variation     Xfce-kolors
Agua       Curve          Galaxy              Kokodi      Perl          Smoke        Wallis        Xfce-light
Agualemon  Daloa          Gaudy               Koynacity   Pills         Smoothwall   Waza          Xfce-orange
Alternate  Default        Gelly               LineArt     Piranha       Stoneage     Wildbush      Xfce-redmondxp
Atlanta    Default-4.0    Gnububble           Linea       Platinum      Symphony     Xfce          Xfce-saltlake
Atlanta2   Default-4.2    Gorilla             Meenee      Prune         Synthetic    Xfce-4.0      Xfce-smooth
B5         Default-4.4    Greybird            Metabox     Quiet-purple  TUX          Xfce-4.2      Xfce-stellar
B6         Default-4.6    'Greybird Classic'  Microcurve  Quinx         Tabs         Xfce-4.4      Xfce-winter
BBS        Default-4.8    'Greybird Compact'  Microdeck   R9X           Tgc          Xfce-4.6      'ZOMG-PONIES!'
Basix      Default-hdpi   'Greybird a11y'     Microdeck2  Raleigh       Tgc-large    Xfce-b5
Beastie    Default-xhdpi  Gtk                 Microdeck3  Redmond       Therapy      Xfce-basic
Biz        Defcon-IV      HighContrast        Microgui    RedmondXP     Today        Xfce-cadmium
Blackwall  Eazel-blue     Iceg                Mofit       Retro         Totem        Xfce-curve
Buzz       Elberg         Kde                 Moheli      Sassandra     Trench       Xfce-dawn
Coldsteel  Emacs          Kde1                Next        Silverado     Triviality   Xfce-dusk
Coolclean  Exocet         Keramik             Ops         Slick         Tubular      Xfce-flat

and nothing makes any sort of difference at all.

On the other hand some other gtk3 only programs look just fine

For example screenshot below shows:
1. gtk3-demo (upper left) - broken
2. gtk3-demo-application (upper right) - good
3. catfish (bottom left) - broken
4. seahorse (bottom right) - good

I am using gtk3.2 and greybird theme on this screenshot. All packages are updated (arch).
Although as I said other themes do not change anything (even Adwaita).

I took a closer look at the 'gtk3-demo'
and after stracing it and finding:

access("/usr/share/themes/Greybird/gtk-3.0/gtk.css", F_OK) = 0

I have no idea what is happening anymore...

For reference:
catfish strace (broken)
gtk3-demo-application strace (good)
gtk3-demo strace (broken)

Do you know what may be the cause of this?

Last edited by Tenrag (2016-08-28 17:33:33)

ToZ · 2016-08-28 19:03:15

Tenrag wrote:

Some of the programs that are gtk3 only, for example: catfish, file-roller, gtk3-demo, etc.
do not react to themes at all. And when I say 'at all' I mean I cycled through all my themes:

Not all of those themes support GTK3. Look inside each theme's main folder to see if it containts a gtk-3.0 folder - this would indicate whether it was designed to support "some version of" GTK3.

I am using gtk3.2

All packages are updated (arch).

I think you mean gtk 3.20. I point this out for a couple of reasons:

gtk numbers sequentially so that 3.2 is less than 3.20. And since you are using Arch you are using 3.20. There is a significant difference between the two.
gtk 3.20 marked a significant change in theming by the gtk developers. You can google gtk 3.20 to get a gist of the changes and what people's reactions were to it.

...which brings me to...

and greybird theme on this screenshot

The greybird author only just recently released a 3.20 version of this theme. If you are not using this version, then you will have issues with the greybird theme. It is available in the AUR as xfce-theme-greybird.

For example screenshot below shows:
1. gtk3-demo (upper left) - broken
2. gtk3-demo-application (upper right) - good
3. catfish (bottom left) - broken
4. seahorse (bottom right) - good

Can you point out what is "broken" in those images? They look fine to me. Unless you are talking about the headerbars that are in use for the two left programs. The two right-sided programs, though both GTK3 programs, don't have the headerbars programmed in yet so xfwm4 displays its own window title bar.

MountainDewManiac · 2016-08-29 00:07:24

ToZ wrote:

I think you mean gtk 3.20. I point this out for a couple of reasons:
gtk numbers sequentially so that 3.2 is less than 3.20.

Shouldn't the text in bold read:
"gtk numbers sequentially so that 3.02 is less than 3.20."
???

Because... Well, I know there is a long-standing tradition of linux developers appearing to be stupid and unable to count with as much skill as even a mildly slow eight-year old can, lol. But they're not actually halfwits (err... are they?).

Hmm... Maybe they really are lackwits - or, perhaps, to be charitable... idiot savants? I mean, if they really ARE incapable of simple elementary school (third grade!) numerical counting skills, that would go a long way towards the imbecilic insistence of naming their distros after women they've had (or maybe wised they'd had ), animals they saw on Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom for Little Tykes, et cetera. But still....

Mourning the willful and ever-increasing reduction of intelligence in the human race,
MDM

ToZ · 2016-08-29 00:49:42

MountainDewManiac wrote:

ToZ wrote:
I think you mean gtk 3.20. I point this out for a couple of reasons:
gtk numbers sequentially so that 3.2 is less than 3.20.
Shouldn't the text in bold read:
"gtk numbers sequentially so that 3.02 is less than 3.20."
???

Actually no. The versions go up like:
- three point two (3.2)
- three point four (3.4)
- ...
- three point ten (3.10)
- three point twelve (3.12)
...
- three point twenty (3.20)

Just like the Xfce versions do (4.6, 4.8, 4.10, 4.12, 4.14).

Tenrag · 2016-08-29 16:38:52

ToZ wrote:

I think you mean gtk 3.20.

Of course I meant 3.20, sorry for the confusion.

ToZ wrote:

The greybird author only just recently released a 3.20 version of this theme. If you are not using this version, then you will have issues with the greybird theme. It is available in the AUR as xfce-theme-greybird.

I did update it, I have Greybird 3.20.0 version, so this is not the problem.

ToZ wrote:

Unless you are talking about the headerbars that are in use for the two left programs

This! I didn't know about the addition of header bars. This keyword is the answer, title bar and header bar are two different things.
I found this:
https://github.com/PCMan/gtk3-nocsd
Which does exactly what I was looking for and explains the problem well.

I was so used to title bars that I thought this was some kind of a problem with xfce. I had normal bars on my workstation at work but it seems the updated programs were to blame. (I have a little older system there).

The thing about themes not changing anything happened because the only thing they could change on those programs was the title bar which was replaced by the header bar. This is why themes didn't seem to work...

TL;DR
New GTK programs can use header bars instead of title bars. (It's not a bug! It's a feature!)
Read here for more info https://github.com/PCMan/gtk3-nocsd

Thank you!

Edit:
While gtk3 port is under way: Would it be possible to incorporate an on/off switch for header bars?
(Does it make any sense to file a feature request in the issue tracker?)

Last edited by Tenrag (2016-08-29 17:06:45)

ToZ · 2016-08-29 19:16:37

Tenrag wrote:

Edit:
While gtk3 port is under way: Would it be possible to incorporate an on/off switch for header bars?
(Does it make any sense to file a feature request in the issue tracker?)

I have not come across or read anything about Xfce implementing a nocsd solution into its code base. You can always try creating an enhancement request though and see what the developers say.

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#1 2016-08-28 16:10:24

Some GTK3 programs do not react to themes at all

#2 2016-08-28 19:03:15

Re: Some GTK3 programs do not react to themes at all

#3 2016-08-29 00:07:24

Re: Some GTK3 programs do not react to themes at all

#4 2016-08-29 00:49:42

Re: Some GTK3 programs do not react to themes at all

#5 2016-08-29 16:38:52

Re: Some GTK3 programs do not react to themes at all

#6 2016-08-29 19:16:37

Re: Some GTK3 programs do not react to themes at all

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