Gtk3 apps not respecting lxappearance settings

Hi,

Using lxappearance, I’ve selected Matcha-light-aliz as my gtk theme, but firefox, arandr, geary, and other gtk3 apps are still showing dark themes, even after a reboot. I’ve also selected a light theme in Kvantum (KvAdaptaMaia).

Any ideas?

system info
    $ inxi -Fxxxza --no-host
    System:    Kernel: 5.11.2-1-MANJARO x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 10.2.1 
               parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.11-x86_64 root=UUID=954cf137-75f3-4e46-8682-9f013e1bd856 rw quiet 
               cryptdevice=UUID=4110f216-65f4-48f0-8bbe-81a930fc1c74:luks-4110f216-65f4-48f0-8bbe-81a930fc1c74 
               root=/dev/mapper/luks-4110f216-65f4-48f0-8bbe-81a930fc1c74 apparmor=1 security=apparmor 
               resume=/dev/mapper/luks-c6d6abb3-a33a-4e43-b48c-c6131a7cb028 udev.log_priority=3 
               Desktop: i3 4.19.1 info: i3bar dm: LightDM 1.30.0 Distro: Manjaro Linux 
    Machine:   Type: Portable System: Dell product: Inspiron 5720 v: N/A serial: <filter> Chassis: type: 8 v: 0.1 serial: <filter> 
               Mobo: Dell model: 023HTX v: FAB1 serial: <filter> UEFI [Legacy]: Dell v: A03 date: 05/04/2012 
    Battery:   ID-1: BAT0 charge: 32.8 Wh condition: 32.8/48.8 Wh (67%) volts: 12.4/11.1 model: SANYO Dell type: Li-ion 
               serial: <filter> status: Full 
               Device-1: hidpp_battery_0 model: Logitech Wireless Mouse M325 serial: <filter> charge: 55% (should be ignored) 
               rechargeable: yes status: Discharging 
    CPU:       Info: Quad Core model: Intel Core i7-3612QM bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Ivy Bridge family: 6 model-id: 3A (58) 
               stepping: 9 microcode: 21 L2 cache: 6 MiB 
               flags: avx lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 33535 
               Speed: 1197 MHz min/max: 1200/3100 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1197 2: 1226 3: 1203 4: 1396 5: 1251 6: 1197 7: 1295 
               8: 1591 
               Vulnerabilities: Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: VMX disabled 
               Type: l1tf mitigation: PTE Inversion; VMX: conditional cache flushes, SMT vulnerable 
               Type: mds mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable 
               Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI 
               Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl and seccomp 
               Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization 
               Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Full generic retpoline, IBPB: conditional, IBRS_FW, STIBP: conditional, RSB filling 
               Type: srbds status: Vulnerable: No microcode 
               Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected 
    Graphics:  Device-1: Intel 3rd Gen Core processor Graphics vendor: Dell driver: i915 v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0 
               chip ID: 8086:0166 class ID: 0300 
               Device-2: Microdia Laptop_Integrated_Webcam_HD type: USB driver: uvcvideo bus ID: 1-1.5:4 chip ID: 0c45:648d 
               class ID: 0e02 
               Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.10 driver: loaded: intel unloaded: modesetting alternate: fbdev,vesa display ID: :0 
               screens: 1 
               Screen-1: 0 s-res: 3520x1080 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 930x285mm (36.6x11.2") s-diag: 973mm (38.3") 
               Monitor-1: LVDS1 res: 1600x900 hz: 60 dpi: 107 size: 380x220mm (15.0x8.7") diag: 439mm (17.3") 
               Monitor-2: HDMI1 res: 1920x1080 hz: 60 dpi: 102 size: 480x270mm (18.9x10.6") diag: 551mm (21.7") 
               OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel HD Graphics 4000 (IVB GT2) v: 4.2 Mesa 20.3.4 compat-v: 3.0 direct render: Yes 
    Audio:     Device-1: Intel 7 Series/C216 Family High Definition Audio vendor: Dell driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel 
               bus ID: 00:1b.0 chip ID: 8086:1e20 class ID: 0403 
               Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.11.2-1-MANJARO 
    Network:   Device-1: Intel Centrino Wireless-N 2230 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel port: efa0 bus ID: 01:00.0 chip ID: 8086:0887 
               class ID: 0280 
               IF: wlp1s0 state: down mac: <filter> 
               Device-2: Realtek RTL810xE PCI Express Fast Ethernet vendor: Dell driver: r8169 v: kernel port: 2000 
               bus ID: 02:00.0 chip ID: 10ec:8136 class ID: 0200 
               IF: enp2s0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
    Bluetooth: Device-1: Intel Centrino Bluetooth Wireless Transceiver type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8 bus ID: 2-1.5:3 
               chip ID: 8087:07da class ID: e001 
               Message: Required tool hciconfig not installed. Check --recommends 
    Drives:    Local Storage: total: 931.51 GiB used: 300.48 GiB (32.3%) 
               SMART Message: Required tool smartctl not installed. Check --recommends 
               ID-1: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Crucial model: CT1000BX500SSD1 size: 931.51 GiB block size: physical: 512 B 
               logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s rotation: SSD serial: <filter> rev: 030 scheme: MBR 
    Partition: ID-1: / raw size: 922.71 GiB size: 907.23 GiB (98.32%) used: 300.48 GiB (33.1%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/dm-0 
               maj-min: 254:0 mapped: luks-4110f216-65f4-48f0-8bbe-81a930fc1c74 
    Swap:      Kernel: swappiness: 60 (default) cache pressure: 100 (default) 
               ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 8.8 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 dev: /dev/dm-1 maj-min: 254:1 
               mapped: luks-c6d6abb3-a33a-4e43-b48c-c6131a7cb028 
    Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 63.0 C mobo: 41.0 C sodimm: SODIMM C 
               Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 0 
    Info:      Processes: 254 Uptime: 18m wakeups: 6 Memory: 7.64 GiB used: 2.05 GiB (26.8%) Init: systemd v: 247 Compilers: 
               gcc: 10.2.0 Packages: 1148 pacman: 1143 lib: 327 flatpak: 5 Shell: Bash v: 5.1.0 running in: lxterminal 
               inxi: 3.3.01 

It seems that gtk2 apps like pcmanfm and gimp are using the light theme, but gtk3 apps are stuck using the dark theme. It also seems that lxappearance requires gtk2, not gtk3, so it isn’t setting the gtk3 theme at all. Hmm…

I also get this error when running nitrogen, but I’m not sure if it’s related to anything:

(nitrogen:4939): Gtk-WARNING **: 17:13:01.483: Unable to locate theme engine in module_path: "adwaita",

(nitrogen:4939): Gtk-WARNING **: 17:13:01.741: Unable to locate theme engine in module_path: "adwaita",

Hmm, my ~/.config/gtk-3.0/settings.ini seems to have the right theme selected, so I’m not sure what’s going on:

(nitrogen:4939): Gtk-WARNING **: 17:13:01.483: Unable to locate theme engine in module_path: "adwaita",

(nitrogen:4939): Gtk-WARNING **: 17:13:01.741: Unable to locate theme engine in module_path: "adwaita",

There is lxappearance-gtk3 in our repo as well.

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So, I installed that, but some themes in the list seem to be effectively blank — selecting them doesn’t change the appearance at all. It seems like some gtk3 themes are missing or not working properly.

Correction

The light themes aren’t actually light in GTK3 for some weird reason.

You have to also change it in ~/.config/gtk2.0/settings.ini and ~/.config/gtk3.0/settings.ini

With theming, I had never success using GUI.

I ended up setting an environment variable, for fixing “theming”:

For example:
export GTK_THEME=Adapta-Maia:light

or, updating /etc/environment, adding:
GTK_THEME=Adwaita:light

Reference:

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