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cy

Member

Registered: 2019-08-23

Posts: 12

[Solved] xfconf: which (coloring) commands for pager and thunar?

Hi all,

one can do lots of magic with xfconf commands. But yet I haven't found out how to identify and override certain color settings. So what I’d like to change is

1. the color of unfocused windows in panel plug-in pager.

   
   

   The coloring so far, but I simply find the white framing on all clients alike too obtrusive:

   

   
   

   A more decent style about how I would like to have unfocused clients (manually colored example):

   

2. the font-color of unfocused tabs in thunar.

   
   

   Thunar tab font coloring, current state:

   

   
   

   Example how it should look like:
   

Probably there are Gtk-settings for this also – but I don’t want to mess with them, I rather want to control them via xfconf, even if I changed themes. So (a) what are the variables especially for 1. and 2. above, and (b) where to find lists of all variables, their parameters, and how to change them for pager or thunar on command line?

Thank you.

OT: @forum-mods: Would also be great if you make the thread Screenshots - 2018 sticky and put into right order.

Last edited by cy (2019-08-26 21:21:11)

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 11,491

Re: [Solved] xfconf: which (coloring) commands for pager and thunar?

OT: @forum-mods: Would be great if you could also make the thread Screenshots - 2018 sticky and put into right order.

Done. Thanks for letting me know.

Probably there are Gtk-settings for this also – but I don’t want to mess with them, I rather want to control them via xfconf, even if I changed themes.

Which appearance theme (GTK theme) are you using?

xfconf-query -c xsettings -p /Net/ThemeName

It might or might not be possible with xfconf. Are you looking to make this change theme-wide (more than just thunar and the pager)?

Also, what version of thunar and xfce4-panel are you running:

thunar -V
xfce4-panel -V

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cy

Member

Registered: 2019-08-23

Posts: 12

Re: [Solved] xfconf: which (coloring) commands for pager and thunar?

You are welcome! ^^

 

Which appearance theme (GTK theme) are you using?

xfconf-query -c xsettings -p /Net/ThemeName

E17gtk

 

It might or might not be possible with xfconf. Are you looking to make this change theme-wide (more than just thunar and the pager)?

No, just thunar and pager, preferably independent from the currently used Gtk-theme.
 

thunar -V

Thunar 1.8.9 (Xfce 4.14)

 

xfce4-panel -V

xfce4-panel 4.14.0 (Xfce 4.14)

Last edited by cy (2019-08-24 19:19:39)

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 11,491

Re: [Solved] xfconf: which (coloring) commands for pager and thunar?

You'll need to use gtk tweaks, xfconf won't work. Put these snippets in ~/.config/gtk-3.0/gtk.css.

For thunar:

.thunar tab label { color: gray; }
.thunar tab:checked label { color: white; }

...change the colours to suit. The first setting sets the default label colour to gray, the second sets the active label to white.

For the pager

#pager-6 { color: gray; }

...change "pager-6" to use the actual widget number. You can get this by hovering over the workspace switcher in the Items tab of Panel Properties, or via:

xfconf-query -c xfce4-panel -lv | grep pager | awk '{print $1}' | awk -F'/' '{print $3}' | sed -e 's/plugin/pager/'

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ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 11,491

Re: [Solved] xfconf: which (coloring) commands for pager and thunar?

There is a way to do this so that you can use xfconf to switch. Add the following to the bottom of the theme's gtk-widgets.css file:

/* workspace switcher */
wnck-pager { color: gray; }
wnck-pager:selected { color: white; }

/* thunar */
.thunar tab label { color: gray; }
.thunar tab:checked label { color: white; }

By adding the tweaks to the theme's configuration files, you make it a part of the theme. Then you can use:

xfconf-query -c xfce4-panel -p /Net/ThemeName E17gtk

...to switch to the theme.

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cy

Member

Registered: 2019-08-23

Posts: 12

Re: [Solved] xfconf: which (coloring) commands for pager and thunar?

Awesome, works at least for thunar!

But yet it don’t for the pager:

Property "/Net/ThemeName" does not exist on channel "xfce4-panel".

And is editing and providing the new settings also possible as normal user instead of root?

Last edited by cy (2019-08-26 20:52:42)

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 11,491

Re: [Solved] xfconf: which (coloring) commands for pager and thunar?

Property "/Net/ThemeName" does not exist on channel "xfce4-panel".

Oops, my bad. Try:

xfconf-query -c xsettings -p /Net/ThemeName E17gtk

And is editing and proving the new settings also possible as normal user instead of root?

Depends on where the theme is. If it is in a protected area (e.g. /usr/share/themes) then you will need root access. However, if a copy of the theme exists in ~/.themes, then you don't need root rights to edit it.

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cy

Member

Registered: 2019-08-23

Posts: 12

Re: [Solved] xfconf: which (coloring) commands for pager and thunar?

Terrific, though I still haven’t created ~/.themes!

Anyway I find using ~/.config/gtk-3.0/gtk.css quite more handy – overrides any theme!

Last edited by cy (2019-08-26 21:22:04)