Xfce Forum

aus9

Member

From: Perth, Australia

Registered: 2018-01-11

Posts: 22

[SOLVED] settings - appearance is not quite right

Hi

I have built and loaded xfwm4 and have it running on 64 bit Tinycore Linux

Each of the following packages have a script that update/refresh their respective cache etc

gtk2, gtk3, gdk-pixbuf2, hicolor-icon-theme, adwaita-icon-theme, gnome-icon-theme

but I am not getting the "box" layout in xfce4-setttings -> Applearance -> fonts

any clues on what I need to update?

https://imgur.com/a/pCrJnjw

Of course, I am assuming it is something to do with icon themes and such and could
well be how I built XFCE.

thanks for reading

gordon

Last edited by aus9 (2018-04-19 23:03:09)

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 11,523

Re: [SOLVED] settings - appearance is not quite right

Which Appearance theme (it will be listed on the style tab) and Window Manager theme are you using? Make sure it is compatible with your version of GTK3.

Last edited by ToZ (2018-04-19 02:03:37)

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aus9

Member

From: Perth, Australia

Registered: 2018-01-11

Posts: 22

Re: [SOLVED] settings - appearance is not quite right

Hi

well I have a few things to test but before I do, I can reproduce and solve the issue in some ways.

1) If I delete this file....a little similar to starting with the default config.....at the console prompt and $startx
.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/xsettings.xml
my buttons and boxs in  settings for appearance......appear OK

and as long as I make no selection in style....the other TAB configs work as expected. Did not test all of them but some from each tab
icons, fonts, settings

2) On first load, there is no style highlighted.
And.....Tinycore being a ram drive system.....I can boot up with no gtk-xfce-engine loaded leaving me with just the theme
Raleigh showing in settings -> appearance

but (3) its not highlighted. So as soon as I click Raleigh, the box surrounding the ticks are lost, the buttons disappear etc.

4) so now to look at the gtkrc for Raleigh  hmmm

/usr/local/share/themes/Raleigh/gtk-2.0$ cat gtkrc 
#
# This theme is the default theme if no other theme is selected.
#

5) gtk-xfce-engine was built with both gtk2 and gtk3 dev packages, maybe that was a mistake?

and I attempted to apply a LFS patch as per

# from LFS.......our TCZ=glib2 uses python glib-mkenums
##########
# The script glib-mkenums has now been rewritten from perl to python and
# will crash when it encounters an ISO-8859-1 character in a comment.
# This sed converts that character to UTF-8.
sed -i 's/\xd6/\xc3\x96/' gtk-3.0/xfce_style_types.h

6) but as the button crash occurs without even loading this extra theme package.....me thinks I need to look elsewhere

7) To answer the question then

with no appearance theme selected buttons work
selecting any theme ...buttons fail
my current xfwm4 theme thru settings -> window manager .........is Daloa

EDIT
8) some of my earlier XFCE build chain had gtk2 supported. I will see if I can eliminate gtk2, plus should make the packages smaller.
eg libxfce4ui

thanks for reading

Last edited by aus9 (2018-04-19 09:44:39)

aus9

Member

From: Perth, Australia

Registered: 2018-01-11

Posts: 22

Re: [SOLVED] settings - appearance is not quite right

slightly offtopic but gtk3 related

just attempted to rebuild libxfce4ui with only gtk3 and make check fails
with gtk2 I get

PASS: abicheck.sh
============================================================================
Testsuite summary for libxfce4ui 4.13.4
============================================================================
# TOTAL: 1
# PASS:  1

and yes I am using a mixture of both stable and dev packages but no git.

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 11,523

Re: [SOLVED] settings - appearance is not quite right

1) If I delete this file....a little similar to starting with the default config.....at the console prompt and $startx
.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/xsettings.xml
my buttons and boxs in  settings for appearance......appear OK

and as long as I make no selection in style....the other TAB configs work as expected. Did not test all of them but some from each tab
icons, fonts, settings

This is because the default fault-back theme for GTK2 is Raleigh and GTK3 is Adwaita. If no theme is selected, these are used.

2) On first load, there is no style highlighted.
And.....Tinycore being a ram drive system.....I can boot up with no gtk-xfce-engine loaded leaving me with just the theme
Raleigh showing in settings -> appearance

If no theme is selected, then the defaults are being used.

but (3) its not highlighted. So as soon as I click Raleigh, the box surrounding the ticks are lost, the buttons disappear etc.

What version of the Xfce packages are you building? It sounds like you've got GTK3 versions. When you select Raleigh (a GTK2-only theme), the GTK3 elements won't display properly.

4) so now to look at the gtkrc for Raleigh  hmmm

/usr/local/share/themes/Raleigh/gtk-2.0$ cat gtkrc 
#
# This theme is the default theme if no other theme is selected.
#

Confirmed. There is no GTK3 component. Try installing and using a GTK3-compatible theme like Greybird, Arc, etc.

5) gtk-xfce-engine was built with both gtk2 and gtk3 dev packages, maybe that was a mistake?

This is really dependent on the versions of the Xfce components that you are installing. gtk-xfce-engine is no longer required for GTK3 components.

7) To answer the question then

with no appearance theme selected buttons work
selecting any theme ...buttons fail
my current xfwm4 theme thru settings -> window manager .........is Daloa

It sounds like you are working with the newer GTK3 versions of the Xfce components. Install and use a compatible GTK3 theme like Greybird or Arc.

EDIT
8) some of my earlier XFCE build chain had gtk2 supported. I will see if I can eliminate gtk2, plus should make the packages smaller.
eg libxfce4ui

thanks for reading

Don't eliminate GTK2 yet - some Xfce and non-Xfce components will still require it,

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ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 11,523

Re: [SOLVED] settings - appearance is not quite right

slightly offtopic but gtk3 related

just attempted to rebuild libxfce4ui with only gtk3 and make check fails
with gtk2 I get

PASS: abicheck.sh
============================================================================
Testsuite summary for libxfce4ui 4.13.4
============================================================================
# TOTAL: 1
# PASS:  1

and yes I am using a mixture of both stable and dev packages but no git.

Which version of this package and can you post back the full config/build script output.

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Please remember to mark your thread [SOLVED] to make it easier for others to find
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aus9

Member

From: Perth, Australia

Registered: 2018-01-11

Posts: 22

Re: [SOLVED] settings - appearance is not quite right

thankyou very much for explaining the gtk2 versus gtk3 issue.

I don't have time tonight to give a longer report as requested.............. but here is the output of the gtk-xfce-engine.

/usr/local/lib/gtk-3.0/3.0.0/theming-engines/libxfce.so
/usr/local/lib/gtk-2.0/2.10.0/engines/libxfce.so
/usr/local/share/doc/gtk-xfce-engine/COPYING
/usr/local/share/themes/Xfce-winter/gtk-3.0/gtk.css
/usr/local/share/themes/Xfce-winter/gtk-2.0/gtkrc
/usr/local/share/themes/Xfce-stellar/gtk-3.0/gtk.css
/usr/local/share/themes/Xfce-stellar/gtk-2.0/gtkrc
/usr/local/share/themes/Xfce-smooth/gtk-3.0/gtk.css
/usr/local/share/themes/Xfce-smooth/gtk-2.0/gtkrc
/usr/local/share/themes/Xfce-saltlake/gtk-3.0/gtk.css
/usr/local/share/themes/Xfce-saltlake/gtk-2.0/gtkrc
/usr/local/share/themes/Xfce-redmondxp/gtk-3.0/gtk.css
/usr/local/share/themes/Xfce-redmondxp/gtk-2.0/gtkrc
/usr/local/share/themes/Xfce-orange/gtk-3.0/gtk.css
/usr/local/share/themes/Xfce-orange/gtk-2.0/gtkrc
/usr/local/share/themes/Xfce-light/gtk-3.0/gtk.css
/usr/local/share/themes/Xfce-light/gtk-2.0/gtkrc
/usr/local/share/themes/Xfce-kolors/gtk-3.0/gtk.css
/usr/local/share/themes/Xfce-kolors/gtk-2.0/gtkrc
/usr/local/share/themes/Xfce-kde2/gtk-3.0/gtk.css
/usr/local/share/themes/Xfce-kde2/gtk-2.0/gtkrc
/usr/local/share/themes/Xfce-flat/gtk-3.0/settings.ini
/usr/local/share/themes/Xfce-flat/gtk-3.0/gtk-widgets.css
/usr/local/share/themes/Xfce-flat/gtk-3.0/gtk.css
/usr/local/share/themes/Xfce-flat/gtk-3.0/xfce.css
/usr/local/share/themes/Xfce-flat/gtk-3.0/apps/xfce.css
/usr/local/share/themes/Xfce-flat/gtk-3.0/apps/unity.css
/usr/local/share/themes/Xfce-flat/gtk-3.0/apps/lightdm-unity-greeter.css
/usr/local/share/themes/Xfce-flat/gtk-3.0/apps/lightdm-gtk-greeter.css
/usr/local/share/themes/Xfce-flat/gtk-3.0/apps/granite-widgets.css
/usr/local/share/themes/Xfce-flat/gtk-3.0/apps/gnome-applications.css
/usr/local/share/themes/Xfce-flat/gtk-2.0/gtkrc
/usr/local/share/themes/Xfce-dusk/gtk-3.0/gtk.css
/usr/local/share/themes/Xfce-dusk/gtk-2.0/gtkrc
/usr/local/share/themes/Xfce-dawn/gtk-3.0/gtk.css
/usr/local/share/themes/Xfce-dawn/gtk-2.0/gtkrc
/usr/local/share/themes/Xfce-curve/gtk-3.0/gtk.css
/usr/local/share/themes/Xfce-curve/gtk-2.0/gtkrc
/usr/local/share/themes/Xfce-cadmium/gtk-3.0/gtk.css
/usr/local/share/themes/Xfce-cadmium/gtk-2.0/gtkrc
/usr/local/share/themes/Xfce-basic/gtk-3.0/gtk.css
/usr/local/share/themes/Xfce-basic/gtk-2.0/gtkrc
/usr/local/share/themes/Xfce-b5/gtk-3.0/gtk.css
/usr/local/share/themes/Xfce-b5/gtk-2.0/gtkrc
/usr/local/share/themes/Xfce-4.6/gtk-3.0/gtk.css
/usr/local/share/themes/Xfce-4.6/gtk-2.0/gtkrc
/usr/local/share/themes/Xfce-4.4/gtk-3.0/gtk.css
/usr/local/share/themes/Xfce-4.4/gtk-2.0/gtkrc
/usr/local/share/themes/Xfce-4.2/gtk-3.0/gtk.css
/usr/local/share/themes/Xfce-4.2/gtk-2.0/gtkrc
/usr/local/share/themes/Xfce-4.0/gtk-3.0/gtk.css
/usr/local/share/themes/Xfce-4.0/gtk-2.0/gtkrc
/usr/local/share/themes/Xfce/gtk-3.0/gtk.css
/usr/local/share/themes/Xfce/gtk-2.0/gtkrc

It appears to my brain, there are gtk3 themes there, but they don't seem to have a gtkrc file.
hmmm looking on the net.....gtk3 seems normal to not have a gtkrc?

2) knowing that greybird and arc are only gtk3? themes......It might be better if I attempt to leave gtk-xfce-engine alone....and just submit a gtk3 theme only?

so once again thanks......and I will have time tomorrow to give more info with luck

cheers

Last edited by aus9 (2018-04-19 13:25:33)

aus9

Member

From: Perth, Australia

Registered: 2018-01-11

Posts: 22

Re: [SOLVED] settings - appearance is not quite right

Hi

I don't have time to build the gtk3 theme this morning but just did a direct injection of a couple themes based on your kind suggestions.

They appear in settings -> appearance -> style  (along with gtk2 Raleigh)

and clicking them.....and checking the other tabs .....the buttons and layout still works.

marked as solved

thankyou very much for your help.

I hope you don't mind that I no longer follow up on the compile question you asked earlier?

Altho these might not be the final products, I have one "bright" and one dark theme as per image

https://imgur.com/a/7SmFO6j

Last edited by aus9 (2018-04-19 23:12:44)

aus9

Member

From: Perth, Australia

Registered: 2018-01-11

Posts: 22

Re: [SOLVED] settings - appearance is not quite right

Have already changed dark theme to Ant-Dracula-Blue
https://www.gnome-look.org/p/1218368/

trivia
####
Remember my issue has been solved. This just tidies up my first post to show a better solution with a dark theme
https://imgur.com/a/vp7aCZH

no need to reply.

Its not the smallest Dark theme out there but the TCZ size is 708Kb

once again thanks for all your help