XFCE Desktop with gnome-system-monitor - Theme Problem

[TheHappyHobbit]

Good day!

I ran updates and gnome-system-monitor is now using the light theme. My DE is XFCE. How do I get System Monitor back to using the dark theme?

Thanks!

[banjo]

What theme, does it support gtk-4 ?

• Appearance issue on XFCE (with QT ?) - #14 by banjo
  Have a look at home/.config/gtk-4.0

[TheHappyHobbit]

I do have the /.config/gtk-4.0/ folder you mention in the other thread, but mine is empty. The theme in your screenshots there would do fine over what the QT5 Conf Tool is showing as Breeze in the Style drop down. How do I add the kvantum-dark option shown in your QT5 screenshot?

[ChrisCanyon]

@TheHappyHobbit

/.config/gtk-4.0/

With a kind of search on the forum, you could find this :

[How-To] Fix appearance of Gtk4 apps with dark themes on Xfce

I recently installed Manjaro Xfce and started tweaking with it. Unfortunately, although there are currently three different places to set a theme (Appearance settings, Kvantum Theme manager, Qt Settings) i found out there are still some Apps, especially Gnome apps like baobab or gnome-logs that show white theming despite me selecting dark ones in all GUI settings apps. After searching high and low, i found a similar topic in the forum suggesting these are GTK4 apps…and that the theming still do…

Fix GTK4 dark theming on XFCE?

as others have noted it’s all due to decisions made by upstream GNOME + GTK4 developers that lead to the libadwaita theming behavior. Pure GTK4 apps are correctly themed under non GNOME desktops, only apps created by using that cursed LibAdwaita library suffer from that inconsistent look. The real problem is the choice made by Pamac devs to use it instead of using pure GTK4 widgets, while knowing that Manjaro officially supports other desktops like Plasma and XFCE.

[banjo]

@TheHappyHobbit

The theme in your screenshots there would do fine

This is a mix from Yaru and kora icons (custom). Theme is adw-dark, but have you solved your problem ?

@banjo

What theme

…do you use ?

[TheHappyHobbit]

@banjo

I haven’t fixed it yet. I use Adwaita-dark for my primary DE, which shows it’s only good for gtk2 and 3.

I had set a dark theme in QT5 yesterday, “bb10dark”, and it didn’t change the look of gnome-system-monitor.

[cscs]

Why would a QT theme change the appearance of a Gnome application?
It should not.
Gnome is GTK. Specifically GTK 4+.
(XFCE is also GTK. But GTK 3)

[TheHappyHobbit]

@cscs That’s what banjo had linked a thread to. I came here to ask for help because I don’t know how to fix it, not because I wanted to argue with people.

I’ve made changes in all three of the applications that come up when typing “theme” in the application search, which is why I’m here.

[cscs]

@TheHappyHobbit

I’ve made changes in all three of the applications that come up when typing “theme” in the application search, which is why I’m here.

And that will likely keep happening.

I am not trying to argue.

I am just trying to concisely get to the point.

You are trying to theme a GTK4 application.

Your DE is GTK, but GTK3.

Setting the QT theme is irrelevant.

You must use a GTK4 capable theme or emulate it.

Also. It is important to note the libadwaita things.
libadwaitsa is pretty … invasive/presumptuous. It makes theming on GTK4 more of a headache.

The linked thread does an OK job of showing part of an approach.

I might suggest in your case … maybe just symlink the ~/.config/gtk-4.0 contents to the contents of ~/.config/gtk-3.0, or directly to your preferred themes in /usr/share/

I use the last method (combined with xsettingsd) on my plasma system;

$ ls -l .config/gtk-4.0/ | awk '{ print $9 $10 $11 }'

assets->/usr/share/themes/Breeze-Dark/assets
colors.css
gtk.css->/usr/share/themes/Breeze-Dark/gtk-4.0/gtk.css
gtk-dark.css->/usr/share/themes/Breeze-Dark/gtk-4.0/gtk.css
settings.ini

(note the colors and settings file are written by xsettingsd, but the others are symlinks to the equivalent files in the Breeze-Dark gtk theme)

Note: For libadwaita-based GTK 4 applications, the chosen GTK theme needs special support and you are required to force a GTK theme with the GTK_THEME environment variable, or use a patched version of libadwaita: libadwaita-without-adwaita-gitAUR.

So in my case I also have in /etc/environment

# GTK Theme - helpful for wayland too
GTK_THEME=Breeze-Dark

I suggest going over the Archwiki page:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/GTK

[banjo]

@TheHappyHobbit

I use Adwaita-dark

Ok, keep it, but install adw theme from repo and symlink the assets, gkt.css and gtk-dark.css as shown here.
You can also give adw theme a try as replacement for adwaita. That is a perfekt match (for those who like it).