Fossapup64-SwitchT: a desktop theme project

[geo_c]

SwitchT is my script name for Switch Theme. I'm going to put this out there for some feedback. I've been working on a theme-pack containing:

• 4 Dark and colorful (no gray) Gtk-2/3 themes, including my own "neo-console" theme, with 2 color-complimentary JWM themes

• 1 set of multi-color ROX-mime icons for dark backgrounds with a ROX 'globicons' file to associate them

• 1 X11/themes icon pack that contains two sets of mono-chrome icons for built-in applications and a limited number of other applications, and also some drive icons to be placed in usr/share/midi-icons (actually the icon collection is fairly diverse with some stock high-contrast color icons and my own manipulations)

• An installation script to install the themes, backup the current JWM/GTK/ROX configuration, and backup the current config files from 6 built-in, user-configurable Fossapup applications to grep later

• 5 SwitchT Scripts -- 2 scripts to switch between two 'featured' themes and 1 script to switch back to the original user configuration (JWM/GTK/ROX/Applications/icons), and 2 User-Custom theme scripts, one to backup and one to restore whatever combination of elements is on the desktop at any given moment

The package is not quite ready for posting just yet, but I can say it installs and switches all themes rather smoothly, both on a fresh ram boot with no save, and also on a fully bloated persistent save. Still there are a few improvements to be made:

• Currently I have not been able to successfully grep the color settings from /ROX-filer/options, and consequently my switch script copies the entire 'options' file between themes, which of course is a deal breaker, because one wants to keep their current options and only change the text colors per theme. All of my other grep and sed commands are working and smoothly keeping application colors congruent to the JWM/GTK themes. Thanks @MochiMoppel for introducing me to the idea a while back.

• Icon-set development is ongoing as I need to create a set of 'puppy-standard' icons

• JWM/Gtk-2 needs a restart for the theme change, but GTK-3 switches on the fly, while ROX needs an x-server restart. My present approach of switching config files probably necessitates restarting, but if that is the case, I would like to add sound lines in the script to restart x-server, because that automatically covers JWM and ROX simultaneously.

Before I start asking for takers to try it out, I thought I would just post the install script and a theme changer script to hopefully get some help. I barely know basic Linux command line, and I'm sure this is an overly primitive way to go about it, but I've learned a lot. If it remains a personal project, rather than something that is worthy of sharing, so be it. It works for me and my puppies!

Here is the Install script:

Code: Select all

#!/bin/sh

#Change working directory to theme-pack location
MYDIR=$(cd `dirname $0` && pwd)
cd $MYDIR

#Backup Current USER Application Config Files
cp /root/.Xdefaults /root/.Xdefaults-ORIG
cp /root/.config/geany/geany.conf /root/.config/geany/geany-ORIG.conf
cp /root/.config/galculator/galculator.conf /root/.config/galculator/galculator-ORIG.conf
cp /root/.config/gogglesmm/settings.rc /root/.config/gogglesmm/settings-ORIG.rc
cp /root/.config/hexchat/colors.conf /root/.config/hexchat/colors-ORIG.conf
cp /root/.notecase/notecase.ini /root/.notecase/notecase-ORIG.ini

#Backup Current JWM Theme
cp /root/.jwmrc-tray /root/.jwmrc-tray-USER-ORIG
cp /root/.jwm/jwm_colors /root/.jwm/themes/USER-ORIG_colors
cp /root/.jwm/jwmrc-theme /root/.jwm/themes/USER-ORIG_jwmrc
cp /root/.jwm/theme /root/.jwm/theme-USER-ORIG

#Backup Current Gtk Theme Name
cp /root/.config/gtk-3.0/settings.ini /root/.config/gtk-3.0/settings-ORIG.ini
cp /root/.gtkrc.mine/.gtkrc-ORIG

#Load Gtk Themes
cp -r $MYDIR/gtk/neo-console /usr/share/themes
cp -r $MYDIR/gtk/oomox-Pandora-Arc /usr/share/themes
cp -r $MYDIR/gtk/Cyanogen /usr/share/themes
cp -r $MYDIR/gtk/Punk-Gamma /usr/share/themes
cp $MYDIR/gtk/settings-OOMOX.ini /root/.config/gtk-3.0
cp $MYDIR/gtk/settings-NEO.ini /root/.config/gtk-3.0
cp $MYDIR/gtk/.gtkrc-OOMOX.mine /root/.gtkrc-OOMOX.mine
cp $MYDIR/gtk/.gtkrc-NEO.mine /root/.gtkrc-NEO.mine
cp $MYDIR/gtk/.gtkrc-2.0-OOMOX /root/.gtkrc-2.0-OOMOX
cp $MYDIR/gtk/.gtkrc-2.0-NEO /root/.gtkrc-2.0-NEO

#Load JWM Themes
cp $MYDIR/jwm/.jwmrc-tray-UniChrome /root/.jwmrc-tray-UniChrome
cp $MYDIR/jwm/neo-console-colors /root/.jwm/themes/neo-console-colors
cp $MYDIR/jwm/neo-console-jwmrc /root/.jwm/themes/neo-console-jwmrc
cp $MYDIR/jwm/neo-console-tray.png /root/.jwm/themes/neo-console-tray.png
cp $MYDIR/jwm/neo-console-window.png /root/.jwm/themes/neo-console-window.png
cp $MYDIR/jwm/oomox-Pandora-Arc-colors /root/.jwm/themes/oomox-Pandora-Arc-colors
cp $MYDIR/jwm/oomox-Pandora-Arc-jwmrc /root/.jwm/themes/oomox-Pandora-Arc-jwmrc
cp $MYDIR/jwm/oomox-Pandora-Arc-tray.png /root/.jwm/themes/oomox-Pandora-Arc-tray.png
cp $MYDIR/jwm/oomox-Pandora-Arc-window.png /root/.jwm/themes/oomox-Pandora-Arc-window.png
cp $MYDIR.jwm/theme-oomox-Pandora-Arc /root/.jwm/theme-oomox-Pandora-Arc
cp $MYDIR.jwm/theme-neo-console /root/.jwm/theme/theme-neo-console

#Load Themed Application Config Files
cp /$MYDIR/conf/.Xdefaults-NEO /root/.Xdefaults-NEO
cp /$MYDIR/conf/.Xdefaults-OOMOX /root/.Xdefaults-OOMOX
cp /$MYDIR/conf/geany-NEO.conf /root/.config/geany/geany-NEO.conf
cp /$MYDIR/conf/geany-OOMOX.conf /root/.config/geany/geany-OOMOX.conf
cp /$MYDIR/conf/galculator-NEO.conf /root/.config/galculator/galculator-NEO.conf
cp /$MYDIR/conf/galculator-OOMOX.conf /root/.config/galculator/galculator-OOMOX.conf
cp /$MYDIR/conf/hexchat/colors-NEO.conf /root/.config/hexchat/colors-NEO.conf
cp /$MYDIR/conf/hexchat/colors-OOMOX.conf /root/.config/hexchat/colors-OOMOX.conf
cp /$MYDIR/conf/goggles/settings-NEO.rc /root/.config/gogglesmm/settings-NEO.rc
cp /$MYDIR/conf/goggles/settings-OOMOX.rc /root/.config/gogglesmm/settings-OOMOX.rc
cp /$MYDIR/conf/notecase-NEO.ini /root/.notecase/notecase-NEO.ini
cp /$MYDIR/conf/notecase-OOMOX.ini /root/.notecase/notecase-OOMOX.ini

#Backup Current ROX MIME-Icons
cp -r /root/.config/rox.sourceforge.net/MIME-icons /root/.config/rox.sourceforge.net/MIME-icons-USER-ORIG
cp /root/.config/rox.sourceforge.net/ROX-Filer/globicons /root/.config/rox.sourceforge.net/ROX-Filer/globicons-USER-ORIG

#Load Themed ROX MIME-Icons
mkdir -p /root/.config/rox.sourceforge.net/MIME-icons
mkdir -p /root/.config/rox.sourceforge.net/MIME-icons-MULTI
cp $MYDIR/rox/MIME-icons-MULTI/*.* /root/.config/rox.sourceforge.net/MIME-icons-MULTI
cp $MYDIR/rox/globicons-MULTI /root/.config/rox.sourceforge.net/ROX-Filer/globicons-MULTI

#Backup USER ROX Options
cp /root/.config/rox.sourceforge.net/ROX-Filer/Options /root/.config/rox.sourceforge.net/ROX-Filer/Options-USER-ORIG

#Load Themed ROX Options
cp $MYDIR/rox/Options-NEO /root/.config/rox.sourceforge.net/ROX-Filer/Options-NEO
cp $MYDIR/rox/Options-OOMOX /root/.config/rox.sourceforge.net/ROX-Filer/Options-OOMOX

#Load Icons and Backgrounds
cp -r $MYDIR/X11lib/backgrounds /usr/share/
cp -r $MYDIR/X11lib/UniChrome /usr/local/lib/X11/themes
cp -r $MYDIR/X11lib/Moka2 /usr/local/lib/X11/themes

touch INSTALLATION-COMPLETE

And here is the SwitchT-OOMOX script:

Code: Select all

#!/bin/sh

#SwitchT-OOMOX Application Themes
#urxvt
grep urxvt.foreground:# /root/.Xdefaults-OOMOX | xargs -I {} sed -i "s/urxvt.foreground:#.*/{}"/ /root/.Xdefaults
grep urxvt.background:# /root/.Xdefaults-OOMOX | xargs -I {} sed -i "s/urxvt.background:#.*/{}"/ /root/.Xdefaults
grep urxvt.underlineColor:# /root/.Xdefaults-OOMOX | xargs -I {} sed -i "s/urxvt.underlineColor:#.*/{}"/ /root/.Xdefaults
grep urxvt.cursorColor:# /root/.Xdefaults-OOMOX | xargs -I {} sed -i "s/urxvt.cursorColor:#.*/{}"/ /root/.Xdefaults
#geany
grep color_scheme= /root/.config/geany/geany-OOMOX.conf | xargs -I {} sed -i "s/color_scheme=.*/{}"/ /root/.config/geany/geany.conf
#galculator
grep display_bkg_color= /root/.config/galculator/galculator-OOMOX.conf | xargs -I {} sed -i "s/display_bkg_color=.*/{}"/ /root/.config/galculator/galculator.conf
grep display_result_color= /root/.config/galculator/galculator-OOMOX.conf | xargs -I {} sed -i "s/display_result_color=.*/{}"/ /root/.config/galculator/galculator.conf
grep display_stack_color= /root/.config/galculator/galculator-OOMOX.conf | xargs -I {} sed -i "s/display_stack_color=.*/{}"/ /root/.config/galculator/galculator.conf
grep display_module_active_color= /root/.config/galculator/galculator-OOMOX.conf | xargs -I {} sed -i "s/display_module_active_color=.*/{}"/ /root/.config/galculator/galculator.conf
grep display_module_inactive_color= /root/.config/galculator/galculator-OOMOX.conf | xargs -I {} sed -i "s/display_module_inactive_color=.*/{}"/ /root/.config/galculator/galculator.conf
#hexchat
cp /root/.config/hexchat/colors-OOMOX.conf /root/.config/hexchat/colors.conf
#notecase
grep TextColor= /root/.notecase/notecase-OOMOX.ini | xargs -I {} sed -i "s/TextColor=.*/{}"/ /root/.notecase/notecase.ini
grep BackgroundColor= /root/.notecase/notecase-OOMOX.ini | xargs -I {} sed -i "s/BackgroundColor=.*/{}"/ /root/.notecase/notecase.ini
#gogglesmm [SETTINGS]
grep -w shadowcolor /root/.config/gogglesmm/settings-OOMOX.rc | xargs -I {} sed -i "s/shadowcolor=.*/{}"/ /root/.config/gogglesmm/settings.rc
grep -w bordercolor /root/.config/gogglesmm/settings-OOMOX.rc | xargs -I {} sed -i "s/bordercolor=.*/{}"/ /root/.config/gogglesmm/settings.rc
grep -w selmenubackcolor /root/.config/gogglesmm/settings-OOMOX.rc | xargs -I {} sed -i "s/selmenubackcolor=.*/{}"/ /root/.config/gogglesmm/settings.rc
grep -w selbackcolor /root/.config/gogglesmm/settings-OOMOX.rc | xargs -I {} sed -i "s/selbackcolor=.*/{}"/ /root/.config/gogglesmm/settings.rc
grep -w basecolor /root/.config/gogglesmm/settings-OOMOX.rc | xargs -I {} sed -i "s/basecolor=.*/{}"/ /root/.config/gogglesmm/settings.rc
grep -w hilitecolor /root/.config/gogglesmm/settings-OOMOX.rc | xargs -I {} sed -i "s/hilitecolor=.*/{}"/ /root/.config/gogglesmm/settings.rc
grep -w selforecolor /root/.config/gogglesmm/settings-OOMOX.rc | xargs -I {} sed -i "s/selforecolor=.*/{}"/ /root/.config/gogglesmm/settings.rc
grep -w backcolor /root/.config/gogglesmm/settings-OOMOX.rc | xargs -I {} sed -i "s/backcolor=.*/{}"/ /root/.config/gogglesmm/settings.rc
grep -w selmenutextcolor /root/.config/gogglesmm/settings-OOMOX.rc | xargs -I {} sed -i "s/selmenutextcolor=.*/{}"/ /root/.config/gogglesmm/settings.rc
grep -w tipforecolor /root/.config/gogglesmm/settings-OOMOX.rc | xargs -I {} sed -i "s/tipforecolor=.*/{}"/ /root/.config/gogglesmm/settings.rc
grep -w tipbackcolor /root/.config/gogglesmm/settings-OOMOX.rc | xargs -I {} sed -i "s/tipbackcolor=.*/{}"/ /root/.config/gogglesmm/settings.rc
grep -w forecolor /root/.config/gogglesmm/settings-OOMOX.rc | xargs -I {} sed -i "s/forecolor=.*/{}"/ /root/.config/gogglesmm/settings.rc
#gogglesmm [colors]
grep  tray\-back\-color /root/.config/gogglesmm/settings-OOMOX.rc | xargs -I {} sed -i "s/tray-back-color=.*/{}"/ /root/.config/gogglesmm/settings.rc
grep  source\-selecttext\-color /root/.config/gogglesmm/settings-OOMOX.rc | xargs -I {} sed -i "s/source-selecttext-color=.*/{}"/ /root/.config/gogglesmm/settings.rc
grep  source\-select\-color /root/.config/gogglesmm/settings-OOMOX.rc | xargs -I {} sed -i "s/source-select-color=.*/{}"/ /root/.config/gogglesmm/settings.rc
grep  playtext\-color /root/.config/gogglesmm/settings-OOMOX.rc | xargs -I {} sed -i "s/playtext-color=.*/{}"/ /root/.config/gogglesmm/settings.rc
grep  play\-color /root/.config/gogglesmm/settings-OOMOX.rc | xargs -I {} sed -i "s/play-color=.*/{}"/ /root/.config/gogglesmm/settings.rc
grep  menu\-base\-color /root/.config/gogglesmm/settings-OOMOX.rc | xargs -I {} sed -i "s/menu-base-color=.*/{}"/ /root/.config/gogglesmm/settings.rc
grep  row\-color /root/.config/gogglesmm/settings-OOMOX.rc | xargs -I {} sed -i "s/row-color=.*/{}"/ /root/.config/gogglesmm/settings.rc

#SwitchT-OOMOX Icons
cp /usr/local/lib/X11/themes/UniChrome/cayan-bright/*.* /usr/local/lib/X11/themes/UniChrome/console
cp /usr/local/lib/X11/themes/UniChrome/cayan-bright/midi/*.* /usr/share/midi-icons
cp /usr/local/lib/X11/themes/UniChrome/system-script/mono/cayan-bright/*.* /usr/local/lib/X11/themes/UniChrome/system-script/mono

#SwitchT-OOMOX JWM Theme
cp /root/.jwmrc-tray-UniChrome /root/.jwmrc-tray
cp /root/.jwm/themes/oomox-Pandora-Arc-colors /root/.jwm/jwm_colors
cp /root/.jwm/themes/oomox-Pandora-Arc-jwmrc /root/.jwm/jwmrc-theme
cp /root/.jwm/theme-oomox-Pandora-Arc /root/.jwm/theme

#SwitchT-OOMOX Gtk Theme
cp /root/.config/gtk-3.0/settings-OOMOX.ini /root/.config/gtk-3.0/settings.ini
cp /root/.gtkrc-OOMOX.mine /root/.gtkrc.mine
cp /root/.gtkrc-2.0-OOMOX /root/.gtkrc-2.0.mine
cp /root/.gtkrc-2.0-OOMOX /root/.gtkrc-2.0

#SwitchT-MULTI-colored ROX MIME-Icons
cp /root/.config/rox.sourceforge.net/MIME-icons-MULTI/*.* /root/.config/rox.sourceforge.net/MIME-icons
cp /root//.config/rox.sourceforge.net/ROX-Filer/globicons-MULTI /root/.config/rox.sourceforge.net/ROX-Filer/globicons
cp /root/.config/rox.sourceforge.net/MIME-icons-MULTI/inode_directory-OOMOX.png /root/.config/rox.sourceforge.net/MIME-icons/inode_directory.png
cp /root/.config/rox.sourceforge.net/MIME-icons-MULTI/inode_mount-point-OOMOX.png /root/.config/rox.sourceforge.net/MIME-icons/inode_mount-point.png

#SwitchT-ROX-options
cp /root/.config/rox.sourceforge.net/ROX-Filer/Options-OOMOX /root/.config/rox.sourceforge.net/ROX-Filer/Options

@JASpup @puddlemoon, here's where I'm at with this theme business.

[geo_c]

[rockedge]

@geo_c Looks like the work is coming along nicely, Ready to share the project?

[geo_c]

@geo_c Looks like the work is coming along nicely, Ready to share the project?

It's getting really fun. I still have to create the Save-Current-Theme script, and I have some decisions to make and extras to include:

• Main hurdle is grepping the colors from ROX options which I haven't put enough time into yet. I can give you a test copy that will use my ROX options on the two preset themes, and restore the original when switched back. Which should be sufficient for a test run.

• I have a jwm-tray with integrated icons -- most people probably don't want that, so I'll comment those lines out, although that would also be switched back when ORIGINAL-theme is chosen.

• I would like to include a loaded panel like the one I use which would contain puppy applications and utilities and makes use of the Uni-Chrome icons which are not integrated into the rest of the system except for ROX, as currently I'm not attempting to alter the JWM-menu icons or the desktop icons.

• A few more details would be nice to tackle in the future, like conky -- it might be possible to grep colors 1 and 2, but there's no way to know what other colors are set in the user rc file, so I could always include a stock fossapup conky with matching colors.

Those are few thoughts. I may be able to get a zip uploaded in the next 12 hours or so, depending on my energy level.

[JASpup]

@geo_c for novelty I was going to ask you about your dark XFE theme, but I just noticed standard XFE icons alone are almost 1mb.

The themes .deb is over 4.1mb extracted.

Compared to Roxfiler, for example, you make it dark simply by using a dark GTK 2.0 theme, then change all the text colors.

I use XFE regularly but not for long sessions and will live just with what is, but a custom theme would make a lot of sense in a puplet.

[geo_c]

@geo_c Looks like the work is coming along nicely, Ready to share the project?

EDIT: DELETED part of this post.
I had it right all along. What I was addressing was actually occurring each time I ran install, so the deleted should be not be wept over!

However this still doesn't solve adding grep lines for ROX options. But I may have the answer once I get one question solved about the ROX options file and grep.

The question is this: are the ROX options lines consistent in their numbering? Because I believe grep can pull lines by number. Is the ROX options file prone to customization and not uniform?

I may still be able to use the grep-sed approach using character strings on ROX options, but I'll need to figure out a few syntax issues first. Because ROX options is an XML file.

[geo_c]

@geo_c for novelty I was going to ask you about your dark XFE theme, but I just noticed standard XFE icons alone are almost 1mb.

The themes .deb is over 4.1mb extracted.

Compared to Roxfiler, for example, you make it dark simply by using a dark GTK 2.0 theme, then change all the text colors.

I use XFE regularly but not for long sessions and will live just with what is, but a custom theme would make a lot of sense in a puplet.

My 1.43.2 version of XFE has color preferences in the xferc. I use the standard gnome-blue icons from the themes included in the deb package, or maybe it was a pet, I don't remember, but I made it into an sfs after downloading from the package manager.

The following lines go in /root/.config/xfe/xferc for the dark blue/cayan OOMOX theme:

Code: Select all

[SETTINGS]
listforecolor=#00b9ff
iconpath=/usr/share/xfe/icons/gnomeblue-theme
hilitecolor=#000d24
single_click=1
highlightcolor=#09162e
textfont=DejaVu Sans [PfEd],100,normal,regular
bordercolor=Black
activecolorpane=1
font=DejaVu Sans [PfEd],120,normal,regular
listbackcolor=#09162e
scrollbarsize=10
shadowcolor=#000715
file_tooltips=1
tippause=500
scrollbarcolor=#11161a
forecolor=#1f9ebf
basecolor=#000b1e
time_format=%X%x
relative_resize=0
selbackcolor=#000b1e
wheellines=5
smooth_scroll=1
use_clearlooks=1
attentioncolor=Red
backcolor=#000b1e
tiptime=10000
selforecolor=#23d5d3
pbarcolor=Blue
save_win_pos=1
show_pathlinker=1

The following lines go in /root/.config/xfe/xferc for the green and black NEO-console theme:

Code: Select all

[SETTINGS]
listforecolor=#0c872d
iconpath=/usr/share/xfe/icons/gnomeblue-theme
hilitecolor=Black
single_click=1
highlightcolor=Black
textfont=DejaVu Sans [PfEd],100,normal,regular
bordercolor=Black
activecolorpane=1
font=DejaVu Sans [PfEd],120,normal,regular
listbackcolor=Black
scrollbarsize=10
shadowcolor=Black
tippause=500
scrollbarcolor=#11161a
forecolor=#0c872d
basecolor=Black
time_format=%X%x
show_pathlinker=1
relative_resize=0
selbackcolor=Black
wheellines=5
smooth_scroll=1
use_clearlooks=1
attentioncolor=Red
backcolor=Black
tiptime=10000
selforecolor=#0baf37
pbarcolor=#0c872d
save_win_pos=1
file_tooltips=1

After I get the basic themes for an out-of-the box Fossapup. I'm going to load the package with an /xtra directory that will include configs for non-built-in applications like xfe.

[geo_c]

@geo_c
The themes .deb is over 4.1mb extracted.

That's pretty small. What is your setup? Are you booting into a fugal savefile with a set size?

I was toying with the idea of creating a set of Xfe icons, but there are a lot of them. Over 300. I use Xfe right along side ROX, meaning I always have Xfe open on the desktop with a couple ROX windows. It's a killer combination.

[geo_c]

So the thing about the SwitchT scripting is ultimately it doesn't need to have anything to do with my particular themes.

In other words I can pretty much edit and package the scripts to save-themes and switch between:

ORIGINAL-theme, CUSTOM-1, CUSTOM-2, CUSTOM-3.....etc.

I'll also be creating the SwitchT package without any themes or icons. That will be super small, as it's only a set of 7 or 8 scripts.

[JASpup]

Large icon spacing gaps of nothing and the icons themselves are bit rustic without a switch-out, but I can totally see how your rendition is a lot easier to read.

[geo_c]

SwitchTUC-v0.1.tar.gz

(3.43 KiB) Downloaded 70 times

@rockedge @bigpup @MochiMoppel @puddlemoon @williams2 @wizard @666philb @mikewalsh

I've had a personal system under development for switching my special dark themes and it works pretty well. As I was scripting it out in a way that might be usable for others, it dawned on me that it might make sense to put together a 'theme-switcher' without any added themes even though I have several very good, dark and colorful GTK themes collected, including one I basically created. Yet, I thought it best to get to the core of the matter. So I decided to modify the scripts to just do one thing, switch GTK, JWM, ROX, and color customizable applications that are built into Fossapup64.

What the scripts do are save all four of those components to backup files, and grep colors from them, or overwrite files where grepping isn't necessary.

So the attached SwitchT.tar.gz contains no themes, icons, or other files except 13 small scripts. I plan to later package a theme pack containing GTK2-3, JWM, and ROX-mime icon theme. But at the moment it seems like a good idea to see if someone would be willing to grab the core switcher and poke around a bit for a test run. This is an alpha version obviously. I'm open to constructive and destructive criticism!

It's written for Fossapup64, so I don't know if it would work on other pups.

This is a skeleton system.

It works like this. Unzip the file to any location and open the folder SwitchT,

First set your desktop how you like it in terms of GTK, and JWM themes, and perhaps the colors of some of these six application: Geany, Notecase, Urxvt, hexchat, gogglesmm, galculator. Then find and run the script called SwitchTUC-CHOOSER, which stands for Switch Theme-User Custom

It brings up this dialog:

Choose SAVE CURRENT DESKTOP which brings up a prompt that looks like this:

Choose SAVE-Custom1 which brings up a prompt that looks like this:

From there you can choose Yes, open Theme Chooser and repeat the save process, but you'll have to change your desktop to be able to save different combinations to CUSTOM1 - 4. Or if you just want to save one, then exit, you could change your desktop to something else, and run the SwitchTUC-CHOOSER again to choose the saved desktop. So it's like backing up your desktop. You could back it up four times or save four different theme choices.

Of course none of this is any fun if you don't have some themes to pick. So that's part of the future pack.

Thanks all of you again for all the help you given me over the years.
~geo

[geo_c]

Large icon spacing gaps of nothing and the icons themselves are bit rustic without a switch-out, but I can totally see how your rendition is a lot easier to read.

I actually tried running Xfe without icons one time, and man, that's hard. I never realized how dependent I am on those little visual cues. But I mean icons in the file list. I never run icons in the menu. My Xfe looks like this:

[JASpup]

I never run icons in the menu. My Xfe looks like this:

No icons looks better.

I would argue XFE icons need to be made more elegant or done away with. E.g., I am back on 32, but my last post was my 64 Xenial with Ubuntu window buttons. They can have white or black accents, but you only need really simple buttons with not a lot detail unless you can make a top-notch set.

xfe-icon-toolbar.png (35.85 KiB) Viewed 3479 times

I realized those spaces are just grey-outed.

The wiz who wrote the manager probably was the one who cobbled together the icons himself - different priorities and skill set.

I use the icons for switching the layout, but I could get used to doing it in the View menu.

[geo_c]

I would argue XFE icons need to be made more elegant or done away with.

I use the icons for switching the layout, but I could get used to doing it in the View menu.

Well you can definitely get used to it. That's how I operate it. But believe it or not, I use ROX all the time with no toolbar-icons or menu of any kind. I've gone totally on right-click and key-bindings for a long time now. I like ROX that way. It's the most versatile manager around.However I just decided to put the essentially better looking icons back in.

I was looking around for icons for Xfe awhile back, and I stumbled on post in a forum somewhere where the guy was working on a script to map other icons sets to Xfe's icon names. But it didn't look like that ever materialized.

I'm going to be getting into the pup icons a little deeper now. I kind of get what's going on with the standard set, but theme sets in X11 are little harder to tackle. Icons all over a system are a big ball of wax.

[JASpup]

Rid of the XFE toolbars too - do not miss the icons, but it is tempting to modify folder icons we can still see, at least their color, that strange, not quite blue, not quite grey blocky lo-fi look is for the birds.

Maybe your day-glo folders should go in.

A stripped XFE looks elegant utilitarian. You can tell what it is without a lot of dressing. Menus - Tree - Panel, nice font, nice color theme, wha-la that's all you need.

[wiak]

Yes, I've also pottered around with XFE as a filemanager - it has so much going for it. Normally I couldn't care less about look-and-feel, but for some reason the way XFE looks does really put me off, despite its excellent functionality. If that could be somehow improved that would be really excellent.

[geo_c]

Rid of the XFE toolbars too - do not miss the icons, but it is tempting to modify folder icons we can still see, at least their color, that strange, not quite blue, not quite grey blocky lo-fi look is for the birds.

Maybe your day-glo folders should go in.

A stripped XFE looks elegant utilitarian. You can tell what it is without a lot of dressing. Menus - Tree - Panel, nice font, nice color theme, wha-la that's all you need.

Well I tried that experiment, except my folder icon was 256 x 256, so it was giant! I'll have to scale down my icons. I went with higher resolution in the beginning to try and keep the quality up.

[geo_c]

@rockedge @bigpup @MochiMoppel @puddlemoon @williams2 @wizard @666philb @mikewalsh

As I was writing an uninstall script to remove the CUSTOM-theme files, and leave the system the way it was. I noticed an error in the Theme-save scripts, that being jwm_colors was named jwm-colors. though it did not seem to cause a problem, I corrected it, and also added the REMOVE-Custom-Themes script which should get rid of everything. It's included in an updated tar.gz in the first post of this thread.
a post note:
I think the dialogs get a little annoying, and without them the scripts are very simple to use, as there are 4 save scripts, and 4 switch scripts, which are easy enough to understand, though it seems to be a good idea to restart X-server, and that dialog should probably stay in the switch scripts.

[rockedge]

I think the dialogs get a little annoying, and without them the scripts are very simple to use.....

Perhaps add an option to enable or disable the dialog. Some users definitely like the GUI.

[geo_c]

I think the dialogs get a little annoying, and without them the scripts are very simple to use.....

Perhaps add an option to enable or disable the dialog. Some users definitely like the GUI.

And perhaps re-organize them a little.

Well, also I found the 'jwm-colors' mistake in the switch scripts. Sorry about that. It may be that those lines aren't 100% necessary, because it seems to work alright without them, but I think it makes for a cleaner switch when all files normally generated by other theme applications are replaced.

So I packed it up again.

SwitchTUC-v0.1.tar.gz

(3.43 KiB) Downloaded 76 times

[JASpup]

Well I tried that experiment, except my folder icon was 256 x 256, so it was giant! I'll have to scale down my icons. I went with higher resolution in the beginning to try and keep the quality up.

time consuming but easy to accomplish

in x-tahr atm but i think i've seen a puppy utility for resizing images. seems like a function someone would have invented cli. e.g.,

i just want this image smaller.

i notice a lot of standard icons are no bigger than 48. normally i'll choose 64 if it's available and ignore larger.

UPDATE: back in Tahr I see PeasyScale v1.8 which works on .jpg. Maybe another comparable utility or a newer version for .png?

[JASpup]

@geo_c
The themes .deb is over 4.1mb extracted.

That's pretty small. What is your setup? Are you booting into a fugal savefile with a set size?

I was toying with the idea of creating a set of Xfe icons, but there are a lot of them. Over 300. I use Xfe right along side ROX, meaning I always have Xfe open on the desktop with a couple ROX windows. It's a killer combination.

Sorry glanced over this post originally.

4.1mb is a lot of data for ugly file manager themes.

I only use save files for testing and setting up adrv. Still recommend them for beginners and would keep using them adrv weren't an option.

Recently I boot Tahr/X-Tahr or Xenial JWM/XFCE 64.

My current Tahr is kind of new and X-Tahr uses the Hirsute background with Neon icons.

My Xenial JWM is the post with your XFE settings, and XFCE looks like the 32-version, mostly because XFCE varies less and I'm using the same background most of the time.

It's too much really but was borne out of features/looks/functionality (something working). E.g., I have been thinking about Android connections. It might be builtin to 32 Xenial, but in 64 Android requires a package almost as big as a browser (go-mtpfs). So maybe I should just .sfs that package as needed, like Libreoffice.

I do not know if Barry's maintaining the script, but as handy as the remaster tool is, it drops files in the attempt to not over-include everything.

So you make an .sfs for whatever you missed + realize later you should have added.

It's really a philosophy. I live in a drought area. I use pre-temp shower water to do my dishes. I wouldn't have to pay to use more tap water for dishes, but I do not think of the waste economically or the time-hassle, more my small footprint as a being.

Likewise junk themes the size of a file manager itself wouldn't hamper my system, but I'd know they're there. The XFE KDE grey is not bad, but as I wrote before, we don't need marginal icons, and your scheme is easier to read.

Related issues I've yet to understand, like why our huge package repository directories are sitting in ram. They're just dormant text most of the time. I would probably compress them and have them extracted for a package manager session.

I believe XFE and Roxfiler complement each other also.

[JASpup]

@geo_c

Feedback: The highlight contrast is too weak. I'm concentrating to see selected files/folders.

I would suggest something bolder like inverting the colors (black text on green fluorescent).

[geo_c]

@geo_c
Feedback: The highlight contrast is too weak. I'm concentrating to see selected files/folders.
I would suggest something bolder like inverting the colors (black text on green fluorescent).

I mean, yeah it's a bit understated but I can see the selection. You do know you can change the colors in Menu>Edit>Preferences>Themes>Custom Colors>Selected Text Color, or Selected Text Background Color. I selected the colors from within Xfe, and then posted the rc file lines after the fact, because it just seemed easiest. Or you can go into the rc file and swap out those two colors.

EDIT: Well I went ahead and swapped 'em for you

Code: Select all

[SETTINGS]
listforecolor=#0c872d
iconpath=/usr/share/xfe/icons/gnomeblue-theme
hilitecolor=Black
single_click=1
highlightcolor=Black
textfont=DejaVu Sans [PfEd],100,normal,regular
bordercolor=Black
activecolorpane=1
font=DejaVu Sans [PfEd],120,normal,regular
listbackcolor=Black
scrollbarsize=10
shadowcolor=Black
tippause=500
scrollbarcolor=#11161a
forecolor=#0c872d
basecolor=Black
time_format=%X%x
show_pathlinker=1
relative_resize=0
selbackcolor=#06530a
wheellines=5
smooth_scroll=1
use_clearlooks=1
attentioncolor=Red
backcolor=Black
tiptime=10000
selforecolor=#85ffa2
pbarcolor=#0c872d
save_win_pos=1
file_tooltips=1

[JASpup]

slight difference i like if not completely leaving the monochrome set with a different forecolor (e.g., very lt. grey).

forecolor=#0c872c (one character)

selforecolor=Black

[geo_c]

I have one task to complete to make the dark theme package ready for sharing. As I mentioned before it's grepping colors from the ROX Options file and replacing them, because as themes are switched to dark, it's necessary to change those colors so that all text is visible. And I'm able to do that by simply using the sed command on the ROX options file and inserting what I want. Like this line which replaces the color title and variable color number characters with the color title and my preferred color number (which in ROX is 12 digits for some reason)

Code: Select all

sed -i 's/display_unkn_colour">#\b[0-9,a-z,A-Z]\{12\}\b</display_unkn_colour">#7e163bb83bb8<'/ /root/.config/rox.sourceforge.net/ROX-Filer/Options

And I could leave it at that and be done with it. But I'd rather grep the colors from an Options-bkp file and insert them back, to be able to go from dark theme to light theme, or more importantly, back to the ORIGINAL text color scheme that was in the user's ROX Options, without resetting any of his other options.

grep|xarg|sed worked well for modifying other config files, but has given me difficulty with the ROX format, I decided to try awk. The problem: I'm not getting awk to play right with sed in this instance. Each side of this command works, But the command as a whole is coming up nill.

Code: Select all

awk '/display_unkn_colour/ {print}' /ROX-Filer/Options-NEO | xargs -I {} sed -i "s/.*display_unkn_colour.*/{}"/ /ROX-Filer/Options

I know that Xargs is passing the line because if I replace the sed command with an echo command, it prints. And I know that sed is finding the .*display_unkn_colour.* string, because if I change the replacement string from {} to TEST then it replaces the entire line in ROX-Filer/Options with the word TEST. And I know that sed can use an xargs {} variable argument, because I have many other scripts where it works in combination with grep. So I'm a bit lost.

[rockedge]

I found it easier in these situations to rewrite and replace from templates the config files instead of using sed to find and replace the individual pieces of strings. I would run into a mess keeping track and have the sed replacements hit the mark every time reliably.

[geo_c]

I found it easier in these situations to rewrite and replace from templates the config files instead of using sed to find and replace the individual pieces of strings. I would run into a mess keeping track and have the sed replacements hit the mark every time reliably.

So far it's been clean using sed, but simpler is better.

When you say 'rewrite from a template,' do you mean reading an existing config file into a template that rewrites it?

[rockedge]

@geo_c Yes that is a way to approach this. During building of WDL-Void or KLV-Boxer which are JWM - Rox combination desktops, I found it is more reliable to create or replace jwm configuration files by the script making the config files from templates of the configuration file that I provided that get written to, then the script swaps them into place. If that makes any sense.

[geo_c]

@geo_c Yes that is a way to approach this. During building of WDL-Void or KLV-Boxer which are JWM - Rox combination desktops, I found it is more reliable to create or replace jwm configuration files by the script making the config files from templates of the configuration file that I provided that get written to, then the script swaps them into place. If that makes any sense.

Yes, and I figured there had to be better way than writing a whole bunch of individual grepping lines. But of course, I didn't even know how to write those a few weeks ago. So it's baby steps for me. And yes, I'm just about done with the "tedious. manual version of this project" which hopefully will surprise you a little, because it really does switch out the desktops efficiently, but nevertheless, if you slide me a look at one of those magic templates, I would probably be utterly confused for a good while, but it would give me a nice perspective on what to pursue next.

I literally can barely put together a [for, if, then, else, fi] loop. I look at the scripts @MochiMoppel gave me to shutdown desktops and such, then try to figure out what's going on exactly, next I do an internet search on whatever command syntax doesn't make sense. Still, I think I'm a fast learner. So I wouldn't write myself off too quickly.