[SOLVED] Cant Edit Themes in Mint

caned_monkey · 10-16-2015, 05:19 AM

Hello,

I am on Mint 17.1

I'm trying to customise my own theme. I have found a theme I like which is Black-n-Blue-GTK but I want to change some of the colours and other features as well. I copied the Black-n-Blue-GTK folder and renamed it My-Theme and then edited index theme so that it showed up in Themes, no problem. I can switch to My-Theme and it obviously looks exactly like Black-n-Blue-GTK.

So, Im trying to edit metacity-theme-1.xml, but no matter how small a change I make, once I click save the theme will no longer load. If I restore metacity-theme-1.xml back to the original, it then works perfectly again.

I tried editing the metacity-theme-1.xml file of other themes and the same thing happens.

I tried following the instructions in the first reply here:

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopi...f=208&p=805220

I changed nbg_color in settings.ini but absolutely nothing happens

What am I doing wrong? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks
Steven

ondoho · 10-16-2015, 12:38 PM

please post the original part of the .xml file, and your modified.
(not the whole file, just the lines you modified, plus a few lines of context )
please use code tags for code.

ps: what a cruel username!

caned_monkey · 10-16-2015, 01:15 PM

I don’t think it's the code that is the issue. I don’t have to change the code, only click save and it stops working.

I'm not trying to make major changes I’m only changing colours. So, from this:

Code:

<draw_ops name="title_text_unfocused">
	  <title color="#000000" x="(3 `max` (width-title_width)) / 2" y="1 `max` ((height-title_height)/2)+1"/>
	  <title color="#9B9B9B" x="(3 `max` (width-title_width)) / 2" y="0 `max` ((height-title_height)/2)"/>
  </draw_ops>

To this:

Code:

<draw_ops name="title_text_unfocused">
	  <title color="#FFFFFF" x="(3 `max` (width-title_width)) / 2" y="1 `max` ((height-title_height)/2)+1"/>
	  <title color="#9B9B9B" x="(3 `max` (width-title_width)) / 2" y="0 `max` ((height-title_height)/2)"/>
  </draw_ops>

ondoho · 10-16-2015, 04:52 PM

yeah the syntax looks ok.
how are you editing the file, how are you saving it, are you closing the editor afterwards?
where is the file in your tree? and you are absolutely positive that the file works when you undo everything? do you undo from the text editor, or by re-copying the original file?
is the theme named differently than the original inside the index.theme? it should, otherwise the system decides on using only one of the two.
is the xml file the exact same name as the xml file from the original theme?

what else is in the theme folder?

caned_monkey · 10-16-2015, 05:01 PM

I'm using XML Copy Editor. If I open up the file place the cursor anywhere, hit space and then delete. I save a file that is identical to the original but it will no longer work. If I go to the original install archive file for the theme and copy the original xml file from there back into the folder in ./themes then the theme will work again.

This happens for every theme I try to edit.

ondoho · 10-17-2015, 01:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by caned_monkey

I'm using XML Copy Editor.

never heard of it.
it probably messed up the formatting/encoding of your file.

anyhow, please try the same with a plain text editor that already came with your distro (leafpad, mousepad) or some ide known to work on linux, like geany.

i know that xml is a pita to edit manually, but if you use sth like geany, you get syntax highlighting (choose a dark theme!) and it becomes much easier.

i'm not sure about the validating stuff, but you could also look at
xmlstarlet
bluefish

caned_monkey · 10-17-2015, 07:53 AM

Top marks! Thank you! It was the editor, everything works fine in gedit :-)