Changing icon themes in Openbox.

Randicus Draco Albus · 01-05-2012, 01:31 AM

I have a funny problem. I am running Openbox with lxpanel with Debian Stable. I originally installed Debian with XFCE, and afterwards installed a few Gnome themes. With XFCE I was using NuoveXT2.2 icons.

The problem: I want to use Nuove icons with Openbox. I have played around with it quite a bit and have reached the conclusion that Debian's "Appearance" and XFCE's "Appearance Settings" have no effect. The key seems to be QtConfig. If I save the settings in QtConfig, the icons will change to Nuove after I open the web browser!!!? Believe it or not. But the next time I log in the icons have reverted to Gnome.

I have tried adding QtConfig to the Openbox startup.sh and tried editing the .gtkrc-2.0 and .gtkrc-2.0mine files created by lxappearance. The best I can accomplish is; after logging in the icons are Nuove until Cairo-Clock and GKrellM load, then they change to Gnome.

Any thoughts on how to convince Openbox to retain the desired icon theme after completing the start-up sequence?

soppy · 01-05-2012, 10:03 AM

Try adding

Code:

gtk-icon-theme-name = "nameoficontheme"

to your ~/.gtkrc2.0 file.

Hopefully this works...

Randicus Draco Albus · 01-05-2012, 11:12 AM

That is a good idea, but the line is already in the .gtkrc file.

Code:

# DO NOT EDIT!  This file will be overwritten by LXAppearance.
# Any customization should be done in ~/.gtkrc-2.0.mine

gtk-theme-name="Clearlooks"
gtk-icon-theme-name="nuoveXT2"
gtk-font-name="Sans 10"
gtk-toolbar-style=3
include "/home/randicus/.gtkrc-2.0.mine"

I added the line to .gtkrc-2.0.mine, but nothing changed.

soppy · 01-05-2012, 11:21 AM

Stop Cairo-clock and GkrellM from starting at login and run them from the console to see if they print any errors. That should give us a starting spot.

Randicus Draco Albus · 01-05-2012, 01:04 PM

Yes, you are onto something. I removed Cairo-Clock and GKrellM from the startup.sh. When opened with the terminal, GKrellM is fine, but Cairo-Clock produced this message:

Code:

(cairo-clock:31148): Gtk-WARNING **: GtkSpinButton: setting an adjustment with non-zero page size is deprecated

(cairo-clock:31148): Gtk-WARNING **: GtkSpinButton: setting an adjustment with non-zero page size is deprecated

(cairo-clock:31148): libglade-WARNING **: could not find a parent that handles internal children for `vbox'
You are not running under a composited desktop-environment (e.g. compiz).
cairo-clock cannot work properly without one.

The icon theme still does not load, but at least there is a clue to a potential solution. Apparently I cannot use Cairo with Openbox and attain the results I want. Unfortunately, I cannot use Conky yet, because I am having trouble enabling it.

I think with Debian it may need to be compiled from source, which I do not have a clue about yet.
On the bright side; getting closer to solving this problem. Thanks for the help.

soppy · 01-05-2012, 01:19 PM

Those warnings are just regular GTK warnings. Nothing to worry about. The one I'm concerned is the last bit.

Quote:

You are not running under a composited desktop-environment (e.g. compiz).
cairo-clock cannot work properly without one.

You may need to have xcompmgr running to correctly use Cairo Clock. Install it via apt-get and run it by using

Code:

xcompmgr &

This should composite the desktop. Try running Cairo Clock again and see if your GTK theme works.

And out of curiosity why do you have QTConfig installed? It may be trying to load its configuration while GTK is loading its configuration which is causing a crash and it's hard-coded in GTK to default to the base set of icons when no other configuration is loaded. Just a thought.

Randicus Draco Albus · 01-05-2012, 06:33 PM

I do not remember installing Qt4. I thought it is part of XFCE. I checked to make sure and removed it after assuring myself it is not needed. I have had compiz for a while, but never used it, because I switched to Openbox shortly after installing it. I toyed with the settings in CompizConfig Settings Manager, but nothing happened, so I assumed compiz does not work with Openbox.
In the event compiz needs post-installation configuration, I ran xcompmgr and xcompmgr &. Both return a

Code:

# bash: xcompmgr: command not found

error.
Is xcompmgr a common shell command entry or is it Arch-specific?

soppy · 01-05-2012, 07:37 PM

You need to install xcompmgr to have composting. Compiz will not work with openbox because they are both window managers. Try running

Code:

sudo apt-get install xcompmgr

And run it again.

Qt is only needed for certain apps and KDE. It is safe to remove it.

Randicus Draco Albus · 01-05-2012, 11:52 PM

Yes, Compiz was not installed with the compiz manager. After installing it I am half-way there. I still do not have nuove icons, but my Cairo-Clock now has transparency.

Even if I cannot get the icons changed, this is a huge improvement over the black square that used to surround the clock.
Thanks. I shall continue playing with this thing until I either get it working or decide it cannot be done. Hopefully the former.

EDIT
More discussion and tinkering has lead to the possibility that the problem may be related to session managers. There are two: GDM log-in window and XFCE Session and Startup. Perhaps they are in conflict?

These two lists of running processes are the same, until line 16321. After that there is a significant difference. I only have a vague idea about what much of it means, but it appears to me that Firefox/Iceweasle is usually in control, and occasionally when the web browser is opened Iceweasle looses control of the desktop and I get what is supposed to be there.

When I have Clearlooks and Gnome icons (bad):

Code:

~$ ps ax
  PID TTY      STAT   TIME COMMAND
    1 ?        Ss     0:01 init [2] 
    2 ?        S      0:00 [kthreadd]
    3 ?        S      0:00 [migration/0]
    4 ?        S      0:00 [ksoftirqd/0]
    5 ?        S      0:00 [watchdog/0]
    6 ?        S      0:01 [events/0]
    7 ?        S      0:00 [cpuset]
    8 ?        S      0:00 [khelper]
    9 ?        S      0:00 [netns]
   10 ?        S      0:00 [async/mgr]
   11 ?        S      0:00 [pm]
   12 ?        S      0:00 [sync_supers]
   13 ?        S      0:00 [bdi-default]
   14 ?        S      0:00 [kintegrityd/0]
   15 ?        S      0:00 [kblockd/0]
   16 ?        S      0:00 [kacpid]
   17 ?        S      0:00 [kacpi_notify]
   18 ?        S      0:00 [kacpi_hotplug]
   19 ?        S      0:00 [kseriod]
   21 ?        S      0:00 [kondemand/0]
   22 ?        S      0:00 [khungtaskd]
   23 ?        S      0:00 [kswapd0]
   24 ?        SN     0:00 [ksmd]
   25 ?        S      0:00 [aio/0]
   26 ?        S      0:00 [crypto/0]
  221 ?        S      0:00 [ksuspend_usbd]
  222 ?        S      0:00 [khubd]
  223 ?        S      0:05 [ata/0]
  224 ?        S      0:00 [ata_aux]
  228 ?        S      0:00 [kmmcd]
  232 ?        S      0:00 [scsi_eh_0]
  233 ?        S      0:13 [scsi_eh_1]
  264 ?        S      0:00 [usbhid_resumer]
  284 ?        S      0:00 [kjournald]
  347 ?        S<s    0:00 udevd --daemon
  538 ?        S      0:00 [kpsmoused]
  591 ?        S      0:00 [tifm]
  600 ?        S      0:00 [flush-8:0]
  605 ?        S      0:00 [i915]
  606 ?        S      0:00 [pccardd]
  630 ?        S      0:00 [hd-audio0]
  742 ?        S      0:00 [firewire_sbp2]
  838 ?        S      0:00 [kjournald]
  839 ?        S      0:00 [kjournald]
  840 ?        S      0:00 [kjournald]
  841 ?        S      0:00 [kjournald]
  906 ?        Ss     0:00 /sbin/portmap
  918 ?        Ss     0:00 /sbin/rpc.statd
1146 ?        Sl     0:00 /usr/sbin/rsyslogd -c4
1180 ?        Ss     0:00 /usr/sbin/acpid
1191 ?        Ss     0:07 /usr/bin/dbus-daemon --system
1204 ?        Ssl    0:02 /usr/sbin/hald
1205 ?        S      0:00 hald-runner
1207 ?        Ss     0:00 /usr/sbin/acpi_fakekeyd
1238 ?        S      0:00 hald-addon-input: Listening on /dev/input/event9 /dev
1254 ?        S      0:07 hald-addon-storage: polling /dev/sr0 (every 2 sec)
1256 ?        S      0:00 hald-addon-acpi: listening on acpid socket /var/run/a
1268 ?        Ss     0:00 /usr/sbin/gdm
1276 ?        S      0:00 /usr/sbin/gdm
1302 ?        Ss     0:00 /usr/sbin/atd
1323 ?        S      0:00 avahi-daemon: running [debian.local]
1324 ?        S      0:00 avahi-daemon: chroot helper
1333 ?        Ss     0:00 /usr/sbin/bluetoothd
1339 ?        S      0:00 [bluetooth]
1343 ?        S<     0:00 [krfcommd]
1406 ?        Ss     0:00 /usr/sbin/cron
1434 ?        Ss     0:00 /usr/sbin/cupsd -C /etc/cups/cupsd.conf
1698 ?        Ss     0:00 /usr/sbin/exim4 -bd -q30m
1711 ?        Ss     0:01 /usr/sbin/kerneloops
1731 ?        S      0:00 [kconservative/0]
1775 ?        S      0:13 /usr/bin/python -O /usr/share/wicd/daemon/wicd-daemon
1793 tty1     Ss+    0:00 /sbin/getty 38400 tty1
1794 tty2     Ss+    0:00 /sbin/getty 38400 tty2
1795 tty3     Ss+    0:00 /sbin/getty 38400 tty3
1796 tty4     Ss+    0:00 /sbin/getty 38400 tty4
1797 tty5     Ss+    0:00 /sbin/getty 38400 tty5
1798 tty6     Ss+    0:00 /sbin/getty 38400 tty6
1801 ?        S      0:06 /usr/bin/python -O /usr/share/wicd/daemon/monitor.py
1811 ?        Sl     0:00 /usr/sbin/console-kit-daemon --no-daemon
1960 ?        S      0:00 /usr/lib/libmenu-cache1/libexec/menu-cached
1976 ?        Sl     0:01 /usr/lib/udisks/udisks-daemon
1977 ?        S      0:03 udisks-daemon: polling /dev/sr0
16312 ?        S      0:00 /usr/bin/gnome-keyring-daemon --start --foreground --
27392 ?        SLl    0:00 /usr/bin/gnome-keyring-daemon --start --foreground --
28312 ?        S<     0:00 udevd --daemon
28313 tty8     Ss+    0:04 /usr/bin/X :0 -audit 0 -auth /var/lib/gdm/:0.Xauth -n
28359 ?        Ss     0:00 /usr/bin/openbox
28401 ?        Ssl    0:00 /usr/bin/ibus-daemon --daemonize --xim
28402 ?        S      0:00 /usr/lib/ibus/ibus-gconf
28404 ?        S      0:00 python /usr/share/ibus/ui/gtk/main.py
28406 ?        S      0:00 /usr/lib/ibus/ibus-x11 --kill-daemon
28410 ?        S      0:00 dbus-launch --autolaunch 15a8804b3247da1d273aea4e0000
28411 ?        Ss     0:00 /usr/bin/dbus-daemon --fork --print-pid 5 --print-add
28413 ?        S      0:00 /usr/lib/libgconf2-4/gconfd-2
28414 ?        Ss     0:00 /usr/bin/ssh-agent /usr/bin/dbus-launch --exit-with-s
28417 ?        S      0:00 /usr/bin/dbus-launch --exit-with-session openbox-sess
28418 ?        Ss     0:00 /usr/bin/dbus-daemon --fork --print-pid 5 --print-add
28428 ?        S      0:00 xcompmgr
28430 ?        S      0:00 lxpanel
28431 ?        S      0:01 cairo-clock
28432 ?        S      0:02 gkrellm
28435 ?        Ss     0:00 gnome-settings-daemon
28438 ?        S      0:00 /usr/lib/libgconf2-4/gconfd-2
28444 ?        S      0:00 /usr/lib/ibus-pinyin/ibus-engine-pinyin --ibus
28446 ?        S      0:00 /usr/lib/gvfs/gvfsd
28452 ?        S      0:00 /usr/lib/gvfs/gvfs-gdu-volume-monitor
28454 ?        Sl     0:00 /usr/lib/gvfs/gvfs-afc-volume-monitor
28457 ?        S      0:00 /usr/lib/gvfs/gvfs-gphoto2-volume-monitor
28842 ?        Sl     0:00 /usr/bin/thunar
28844 ?        S      0:00 /usr/lib/gamin/gam_server
28854 ?        S      0:00 mousepad /home/randicus/Desktop/forum
28862 ?        Sl     0:04 /usr/lib/iceweasel/firefox-bin
29078 ?        Rl     0:00 xfce4-terminal
29079 ?        S      0:00 gnome-pty-helper
29080 pts/0    Ss     0:00 bash
29095 pts/0    R+     0:00 ps ax
29775 ?        S<     0:00 udevd --daemon

With Gelb style and Nuove icons (What I want.):

Code:

~$ ps ax
  PID TTY      STAT   TIME COMMAND
16312 ?        S      0:00 /usr/bin/gnome-keyring-daemon --start --foreground --
23824 ?        S<     0:00 udevd --daemon
24847 ?        Sl     0:22 /usr/lib/iceweasel/firefox-bin
26509 ?        Sl     0:00 xfce4-terminal
26510 ?        S      0:00 gnome-pty-helper
26511 pts/0    Ss     0:00 bash
26533 pts/0    R+     0:00 ps ax
29775 ?        S<     0:00 udevd --daemon
29779 tty8     Ss+    4:00 /usr/bin/X :0 -audit 0 -auth /var/lib/gdm/:0.Xauth -n
30270 ?        Ss     0:00 /usr/bin/openbox
30312 ?        Ssl    0:03 /usr/bin/ibus-daemon --daemonize --xim
30313 ?        S      0:00 /usr/lib/ibus/ibus-gconf
30315 ?        S      0:05 python /usr/share/ibus/ui/gtk/main.py
30317 ?        S      0:01 /usr/lib/ibus/ibus-x11 --kill-daemon
30329 ?        S      0:00 dbus-launch --autolaunch 15a8804b3247da1d273aea4e0000
30331 ?        Ss     0:00 /usr/bin/dbus-daemon --fork --print-pid 5 --print-add
30332 ?        Ss     0:00 /usr/bin/ssh-agent /usr/bin/dbus-launch --exit-with-s
30335 ?        S      0:00 /usr/bin/dbus-launch --exit-with-session openbox-sess
30336 ?        Ss     0:00 /usr/bin/dbus-daemon --fork --print-pid 5 --print-add
30338 ?        S      0:00 /usr/lib/libgconf2-4/gconfd-2
30348 ?        S      0:06 xcompmgr
30350 ?        S      0:01 lxpanel
30351 ?        S      0:49 cairo-clock
30352 ?        S      1:31 gkrellm
30356 ?        S      0:00 /usr/lib/libgconf2-4/gconfd-2
30359 ?        S      0:00 /usr/lib/ibus-pinyin/ibus-engine-pinyin --ibus
30395 ?        S      0:00 /usr/lib/gvfs/gvfsd
30401 ?        S      0:00 /usr/lib/gvfs/gvfs-gdu-volume-monitor
30403 ?        Sl     0:00 /usr/lib/gvfs/gvfs-afc-volume-monitor
30406 ?        S      0:00 /usr/lib/gvfs/gvfs-gphoto2-volume-monitor

If it helps, this is my .gtkrc-2.0 file:

Code:

gtk-theme-name="Gelb"
gtk-icon-theme-name="nuoveXT2"
gtk-font-name="Olde Englishe Bold 11"
gtk-toolbar-style=3
include "/home/randicus/.gtkrc-2.0.mine"

And my additions to the Openbox startup.sh:

Code:

xfce-mcs-manager n &
xcompmgr &
My wallpaper
eval `cat $HOME/.fehbg` & 
lxpanel &
cairo-clock &
gkrellm &

Randicus Draco Albus · 01-31-2012, 11:28 PM

After much groping around my system, I have narrowed the problem down. I believe it is either the display manager/log-in manager or theme switcher.
The theme switcher I want to use is gtk with lxappearance. This is what is used when opening the web browser activates it. The rest of the time, my system is using the XFCE theme switcher. Unfortunately, removing it would also remove XFCE, which I do not want to do, because I want to keep a few of its applications.
The reason I am inclined to think the log-in manager is involved, is that it always has the correct fount at log-in and log-out. I would like to experiment by replacing gdm, but at the moment I cannot risk frying my system, which is a likely outcome given my limited computer competence.
I have also removed xfce-mcs-manager from my startup.sh, but to no avail.

soppy · 02-01-2012, 07:47 AM

I apologize for not replying sooner. Didn't see that you updated.

I don't believe it is your session/log-in manager (aka GDM). Instead, I believe the problem lies within all of the configuration tools that you use.

XFCE and LXDE are BOTH based on GTK and thusly their configuration tools do the same thing, just in different ways. So, it is safe to remove the XFCE-themer. LXAppearance can and will theme XFCE apps as well via the gtkrc. I remember at one point you said something about QTConfig. Is this even needed anymore? If not, remove it. Now, we need to clean house.

Please remove the gtkrc, gtkrc-mine, and your xfce4 configuration folder found in ~/.config/xfce4. Remove your QTConfig configuration folder as well (not sure where this is as I don't use it). This SHOULD default your desktop back to a stock look after a log-out and log-in. Then, procede to theme ONLY USING LXAppearance. Do not use the XFCE-themer. Does this work for you?

Randicus Draco Albus · 02-01-2012, 08:21 AM

QtConfig is long gone. I only have Openbox on top of XFCE (which I do not use), I have lxappearance, because I use lxpanel.
I am sure it is safe to remove XFCE theme switcher, but if I want to remove it, Synaptic wants to remove all of XFCE. If I do that, then I would need to re-install all of the useful applications that were installed with XFCE, such as archiver, Thunar, etc. So I shall hold off on that until I try your final suggestion.
I shall remove the gtkrc, gtkrc-mine and xfce4 configuration folder found in ~/.config/xfce4 and see what happens.
Here's hoping.

EDIT
No go.

I removed the xfconf folder and the two gtkrc files. No change. Thanks anyway.
Next I shall try to remove the XFCE theme switcher without removing XFCE. If that fails, then I may need to remove XFCE all together.