Guide: Making Xfce Sexy

[SomeGuy99]

Spoiler

Download the packge at the bottom of this link

Spoiler

Download the file on this page called: Shiki-Colors (MurrineSVN)

Spoiler

----image below----

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Spoiler

Guide: Changing the desktop icon text colour to white.

More!

Spoiler

Spoiler

Ubuntu Dust:

https://launchpad.net/dusttheme/0.5/0.5.0

You want the file described as 'Dust GTK theme'.
Install this the same way as you did for the Shiki theme.

New Wave:

You need to download two files. The original theme has the GTK portion, and the second file has the XFWM window decorations.

Whats the difference?

GTK covers all the widgets - basically everything inside the window. It's also used by Gnome as well as XFCE (both are desktop environments). Some programs use QT instead of GTK (QT originating from KDE, a different desktop environment for Linux and other systems designed to feel more like Windows). You have noticed that Aurora and Midori look completely different... that's because Aurora is using QT for all the widgets (stuff inside the window) and Midori is using native GTK.

The Window Manager covers the bar at the top of windows and any borders. XFCE has a window manager called XFWM, and so we need themes for this.

A huge array of window managers exist for Linux, and they can be interchanged for one another. We're only concerned with XFWM however...

https://launchpad.net/anton

Download and install this theme (download link is the green box to the right).

The folder you copy across should contain a 'gtk-2.0' directory inside it (amongst others).

http://xfce-look.org/content/show.php/New+Wave+XFWM+Theme?content=104935

Do the same for this file (on the page it is called 'XFWM for the New Wave theme').

This second file contains the theme info for XFWM. Directly inside the New Wave folder you copy across should be a folder called 'xfwm4'.

Once you copy both across to the '/usr/share/themes' folder, it should be available in both menus.

Cleaning up the NAND?

Folders in /usr/themes only need to have folders for 'gtk-2.0' and 'xfwm4' in them. Anything else, such as 'metacity' is superfluous to us in XFCE. If you want to free up NAND space, you can delete all these other files.

 

[dflemstr]

Awesome. VERY explicit explanations; I would probably have done it all in one paragraph, and nobody would have understood

EDIT: also, next time you type instructions in a terminal, prefix them with a comment character (#)!

 

[Pleng]

Might be an idea to spolier up some of those images!

 

[Sephiroth]

sticky?

why not

 

[mindlord]

Wiki, not sticky.

 

[Sephiroth]

Wiki, not sticky.

better

 

[SomeGuy99]

Awesome. VERY explicit explanations; I would probably have done it all in one paragraph, and nobody would have understood

EDIT: also, next time you type instructions in a terminal, prefix them with a comment character (#)!

I thought it would be funnier. I have a weird sense of humour

Might be an idea to spolier up some of those images!

They're all spliced into four giant images because of forum restrictions. You think I should spoiler each one of those?

 

[Pleng]

Might be an idea to spolier up some of those images!

They're all spliced into four giant images because of forum restrictions. You think I should spoiler each one of those?

It might be helpful. Especially if people want to use the links in the thread directly from their pandora without having to scroll through all the pictures.

 

[SomeGuy99]

Might be an idea to spolier up some of those images!

They're all spliced into four giant images because of forum restrictions. You think I should spoiler each one of those?

It might be helpful. Especially if people want to use the links in the thread directly from their pandora without having to scroll through all the pictures.

Done.

 

[SomeGuy99]

after 13%, you ran out of battery! :lol:
solar energy??

I personally ran out energy after having been up all night

Nah, I just noticed it was getting near to 10%. Exaile was probably using up most of the battery.

 

[Vlynndar]

That is one sexy tutorial. Useful for other computers too, no?

 

[SomeGuy99]

That is one sexy tutorial. Useful for other computers too, no?

Yeah, XCFE themes can be universally installed this way. The step that would differ is installing Murrine (obviously you wouldn't use the angstrom repos, but whatever your distro uses).

EDIT: Added more to the guide. Check out the last two spoilers.

 

[Sphinxter]

Certainly no accounting for taste.

 

[SomeGuy99]

Certainly no accounting for taste.

Very constructive feedback, thanks. You've given me a lot to think about there.

This is the default theme in Linux Mint btw.

If you're on about about my wallpaper... heh... I like bright colours!

 

[fusion_power]

Nice. Now you just have to make a one-button-installs-everything-method for such skin changing.

 

[SomeGuy99]

Nice. Now you just have to make a one-button-installs-everything-method for such skin changing.

That wouldn't be hard at all. I don't know why XFCE doesn't have one like Gnome does? In Gnome you just drag and drop.

If I could figure out how to make a working PND, these themes could be packaged up and installed automatically... but you'd miss out all the fun of learning Linux

I notice these days a lot of Gnome themes are just put into packages and stuck up on the repo, and people install that way.

If you want, I can put the themes and libraries into a zip file and include an installation shell script. You'd be able to run it from your SD card or whatever?

 

[Sphinxter]

Certainly no accounting for taste.

Very constructive feedback, thanks. You've given me a lot to think about there.

This is the default theme in Linux Mint btw.

If you're on about about my wallpaper... heh... I like bright colours!

I was referring to the viewpoint of those as sexy or to put it another way, one man's sexy is another man's ew, which is why there is no accounting for taste.

 

[Pleng]

If I could figure out how to make a working PND, these themes could be packaged up and installed automatically... but you'd miss out all the fun of learning Linux

That's a sacrifice some of us are more than happy to make!

(by the way, how did you take your screengrabs? Is it possible to grab screenshots in minimenu?)

 

[SomeGuy99]

Certainly no accounting for taste.

Very constructive feedback, thanks. You've given me a lot to think about there.

This is the default theme in Linux Mint btw.

If you're on about about my wallpaper... heh... I like bright colours!

I was referring to the viewpoint of those as sexy or to put it another way, one man's sexy is another man's ew, which is why there is no accounting for taste.

To be fair, I was just joking about the sexy thing.

Didn't the tone of my guide not get that across?

It's pretty boring for me, making a long guide to just call it 'Guide: How to install themes for XFCE - featuring Shiki Colors'.

I need stimulation when I'm doing long repetitive tasks. Sorry about that :lol:

 

[SomeGuy99]

That's a sacrifice some of us are more than happy to make!

(by the way, how did you take your screengrabs? Is it possible to grab screenshots in minimenu?)

I made a small script to do it, then mapped it to a key combination.

It would work in minimenu but you'd have to bring up a terminal window, and thus you'd just get a screengrab of that.

It would need xmodmap hacking to get it working under Minimenu. I haven't googled that one quite yet B)