[xmonad] gnome theming is destroying my life

[Jochen Keil]

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Hello Michael,

On 14.09.2012 08:18, Michael Norrish wrote:
> On 14/09/12 02:22, Jochen Keil wrote:
> 
>>> I should clarify:  this was GNOME 3 running in fallback (i.e. 
>>> "should be" GNOME 2).  But somehow all theming was disabled and
>>> (it being that I had a theme engine configured, and it was
>>> present in the system and if I installed a theme manager I
>>> could deselect/reselect it) theme engines threw errors as if
>>> they couldn't be found.  Or, integrating the above, that
>>> something is forcing the theme to something stupid and ugly,
>>> possibly in a misguided attempt to get people to throw
>>> everything (possibly including hardware) out and upgrade to the
>>> Glorious New Shiny.
> 
>> I'd like to throw a bit in here. I'm running completely without 
>> {gnome,xfce}-session-manager (which does normally all the fancy
>> gtk theme settings). It is possible to configure gtk-{2,3}
>> applications without GNOME or XFCE though.
> 
>> For reference I've attached my ~/.gtkrc-2.0 and 
>> ~/.config/gtk-3.0/settings.ini files.
> 
>> Themes can most likely be found in /usr/share/themes (depends on 
>> installation) whereas icon themes normally reside in
>> /usr/share/icons (again, dependent on installation).
> 
> Dear Jochen,
> 
> My desktop settings call for a gnome-settings-daemon to be run,
> and indeed, ps reveals that one is running.  I can also configure
> some things from the System Tools/System Settings/ menu.  For
> example, turning on sticky modifiers in the Universal Access/Typing
> screen works.  But changing the theme in Appearance doesn't seem to
> do anything at all.  Nor can I seem to change the system font
> anywhere.
You can combine manual configuration and a settings daemon. However,
in my experience you are asking for trouble. :)

> I don't have either a ~/.gtkrc-2.0  or ~/.config/gtk-3.0
> directory.
~/.gtkrc-2.0 is a file, like the (previously) attached one.
~/.config/gtk-3.0 is a directory, which you can create using "mkdir
- -p". You should, however, check if ~/.config is your $XDG_CONFIG_HOME.
After that you can place your settings.ini (for configuring gtk-3.0
based apps) there.

> How do I tell which framework my applications are basing themselves
> on?
The methods I can think of are:
* Use ldd `which my-application`
* Check the dependencies with you packet manager
* Judge by the looks.. (meaning you know about the subtle differences
between gtk-2 and gtk-3. :)

> Of the files you attached, should I just create instances of all of
> them?
Depends on what you want/need. .gtkrc-2.0 is for gtk2 and settings.ini
for gtk3.

In addition, Carsten mentioned some graphical helper programs in his
last email. Personally, I prefer the textual method, since I don't
find the documentation I've linked to in my last mail very hard to
understand.

> Thanks for any advice you may have,
My pleasure,

Jochen
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