Using Dark Themes in Ubuntu (Gnome 2.2x)

Posted June 24, 2008 ago at 2:26 pm. 6 comments

Using dark themes in Gnome has always has some issues. Due to issues in Gnome and GTK apps, some application have problems like dark fonts on dark background, text areas grayed out, and multiple issues with OpenOffice. Here is a quick guide to solve many of the problems I encountered using dark themes in Gnome.

1. Firefox Fixes
Firefox has issues display certain CSS field properly with dark themes. This is a big problem in Firefox 2, but can still happen in Firefox 3. Install this userContent.css to /home/username/.mozilla/firefox/RandomProfile_name/chrome and restart Firefox.

2a. Dark System Themes (Ubuntu Studio)
The easiest solution for a dark theme in Ubuntu is to install the UbuntuStudio-theme package.
sudo apt-get install ubuntustudio-theme
or if you want the full metapackage with icons, GDM theme, etc..
sudo apt-get install ubuntustudio-look
The Ubuntu Studio theme is a beautiful theme created by the Ubuntu Studio team, which fixes many of the problem with dark themes in Gnome.

2b. Other Dark Themes
Since Linux is all about choice, we want to use other dark themes for Gnome and workaround issues these themes have. First, we still want to install the ubuntustudio-theme package.
sudo apt-get install ubuntustudio-theme
Then we will use UbuntuStudio theme on certain applications that have problems with dark themes (OpenOffice, Banshee, Thunderbird,etc…).

To get an application to use another theme you want to add the following to the command the launches a program “env GTK2_RC_FILES=/usr/share/themes/UbuntuStudio/gtk-2.0/gtkrc“. Right click on the gnome menu applet and choose Edit Menus. Goto the application you want using a different theme (in this example OpenOffice Writer), right click the application and select Properties. Change the Command from
ooffice -writer %U
to
env GTK2_RC_FILES=/usr/share/themes/UbuntuStudio/gtk-2.0/gtkrc ooffice -writer %U
OpenOffice Writer should now use UbuntuStudio theme instead of the system theme you have set.

If you have any comment or suggestion for this guide, please comment on this thread on the Ubuntu Forums.

Theme Details:
Theme: Moomex Ultimatum 0.4
Font: UnDotum Bold
Icons: Jungle Black
Wallpaper: Radiant from http://interfacelift.com

600,000 Register Users

Posted June 11, 2008 ago at 8:36 pm. 1 comment

The Ubuntu Forums has passed another milestone, 600,000 register users. Thanks to the Ubuntu forums staff and the rest of the Ubuntu community for making the forums kick ass.

Revisiting the past

Posted June 6, 2008 ago at 4:11 pm. 1 comment

When I first went to college, I had dreams of getting into broadcasting. While I have a face for radio :), it was something that did not work out. This week the guys at the Fresh Ubuntu podcast (http://www.freshubuntu.com) had me on for an interview. We chatted about the forums, membership and other topics. It was truly a guilty pleasure being on the show and I had a great time. You can listen to the show here.

Speaking of revisiting the past, the new version of Dungeons and Dragons was released today. While I have not played in years, it does bring back great memories of high school and college. I also like that D&D tries to embrace the spirit of Open Source with the Open Gaming License. While I would prefer a Creative Commons type license, I do appreciate the effort.