Gnome 3: Need help installing themes on Debian 6.0
 

I am beginning to really resent the changes made to Gnome desktop. The most frustrating part -- beyond the missing drawers -- is the inability to install more than 2 themes (I don't care for) throughout the system. All the other gtk3 themes (that actually work) only appear when you launch an application like Amarok or Openoffice. All the other windows are butt ugly. I have never seen this problem with Gnome2. And there is no help for Debian users, just Ubuntu.

Here's what I have done so far:
Installed the themes in /usr/share/themes/ and the gnome shell themes in /usr/share/gnome-shell/ and I change the shell name to theme. I followed the only directions I could find online, but the Alt+F2 than typing 'r' or 'rt' or 'restart', does not work in Debian 6.0.:banghead: I think it must be an Ubuntu thing.

So far, only the themes that came with the gnome 3 desktop (Adwaita and Atolm-gtk3) work correctly. They aren't bad, but I prefer something more colorful.

Is it possible to get any other themes to work throughout the system, if you don't use Ubuntu?

Btw, I use Gnome Tweak Tool to change Interface / Gtk+ Theme -- which is missing some of the sections I've seen in pics of Ubuntu's Tweak Tool.:scratch: For example the section called 'Shell / Shell Theme' it says in a highlighted box "could not list shell extens"... Can't read the rest, but assume it was extensions. Also, can't resize Gnome Tweak Tool, so some items that are changeable are not available because I can't reach them!!:doh:

Please, if anyone can help me with gnome 3 themes I'd be grateful for the assist. I don't think I can return to Gnome 2 without breaking my system.
I actually ended up with Gnome 3 because I updated my gdm and discovered, when I restarted the system, that gnome had been uninstalled and I had to re-install from my xfce desktop.

Sorry I can't find the link to the article I read, but there's apparently a substantial difference between gtk2 and gtk3 which requires more than trivial effort to port a theme to gnome3.

The theme I preferred is not planned to be ported, so the short answer is that there is no limitation to the number of themes but developers are busy working on other projects and not all themes have been, or will be ported.

I suggest you search Google for the theme you're looking for +gnome3 and see if you can find the theme developer's homepage. You'll get more specific details regarding that theme from the developer of the theme herself.

Myself: Can't live w/o Clearlooks

You haven't got Debian 6 (squeeze) and Gnome 3 (Gnome-shell) you must have done something screwy to achieve that result. What have you got in your sources.list? My be is somehow you have added Testing (wheezy) or Unstable (sid) to your sources and updated from there. You can go back to Gnome2 of you want but it will take some work. If you want to then post your sources.list (in code tags please) so we can see how you have installed Gnome3.

Thank you both for responding!
 

I will do that. Thanks! I like Clearlooks too, but I don't think it works in Gnome3 either unfortunately. That was a mistake on the developers part. They should have made old themes compatible with the new desktop. Don't see the value in making things hard. I have found themes that are suppose to work with Gnome3 / gtk3 but they don't work, except in apps, as I mentioned in OP. I don't know why.

Today, someone on Twitter suggested I needed a new gtk engine called Unico, but that can't be the case because that engine is only for Ubuntu.


I ran the command 'uname -r' and it says I am using 2.6.32-5-686. To be honest, I don't remember if I started with that or not. My memory isn't what it use to be.:redface:

My sources list is as follows:

Most of the package repositories (Lenny) are from when I was using Dreamlinux 3.5, but I still found them useful and kept them. Hope you can help me. And thank you, in advance, for trying!

Ok, you have 3 (4 with Debian Multimedia) separate versions of Debian in your sources.list.

Lenny is now oldstable, Squeeze is stable and Sid is unstable, testing is Wheezy. Gnome3 has come into your system via Sid. If you want to remove Gnome3, maybe easier to read about than actually do, I would remove or comment out Sid from your sources.list. I would also as a matter of security remove or comment out Lenny.

This is how I would personally setup your sources list.
The kernel is from Squeeze so that is where I'd be staying considering you don't like Gnome3. Having said that there are some security vulnerabilities in 2.6.32 BUT Debian is extremely vigilant about fixing things like that so I wouldn't be to worried atm.

Now assuming you have removed or commented out Sid and Lenny and oldstable. I would refresh apt-get by opening a terminal and pasting
After you have done that go to Synaptic and install gnome-core that will then, hopefully, remove Gnome3 and return your system to Gnome 2.30. Be aware that it will also re-download, unless the packages are in your apt cache, alot of packages.

Not promising that will work but if you really dislike Gnome3 that much its an option you can try.

I tried, but it didn't work out.:( I was able to remove gnome and install the old core and data files, but could not install gnome-desktop-environment. So I went back to my old sources.list.

I don't mind Gnome 3 (with the old Gnome I had to create launchers to restart and shutdown) I just hate the way it looks and not being able to use themes that are actually made for gnome 3 /gtk3 throughout the system like the previous gnome. I don't understand what the issue is.:confused:

I need Gnome because I can't use Tweetdeck and some other airadobe apps with XFCE desktop.

I did it!!
 

I fixed it. I think. So far so good.

I took _bsd's advice and Googled gtk3 + swar-blue -- the theme I wanted to make work, it mentioned Ubuntu. I then Googled GTK3-unico + debian and I discovered that GTK3-Unico was being created for Debian (being worked on for 35 days, if I remember rightly), which convinced me that I did need it for the themes to work in Debian. If it wasn't needed they probably wouldn't waste their time, right? So, here's what I did:

I downloaded gtk3-engines-unico_1.2.0.1-0ubuntu1_i386.deb from an ubuntu mirror and saved it in my home folder.

I added the Debian experimental repository to my /etc/apt/sources.list file using the terminal command 'sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list'

I added 'deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian experimental main' to the file and saved.

I logged in as super user 'su'; then I used the command 'apt-get update'

When the new packages finished loading, I used the command 'apt-get -t experimental install libgtk-3-0' because the libgtk-3-0 I had was not new enough to work. And neither were unstable or wheezy. I checked.
The package was installed along with all dependencies.

I was then able to manually install the unico engine because all dependencies for it were now met.
I used the terminal command 'dpkg --install gtk3-engines-unico_1.2.0.1-0ubuntu1_i386.deb' and it was very easy. I thought a little too easy.

At first I was not convinced it worked, the windows (some) were still ugly. And I had to manually change the panel background to the panelbg1.png file that came in the package, but after logging out and back in everything was swar-blue.
It looks great! Wish I could include a pic.

I described what I did in detail so that someone else having the same problem might be helped.
Oh, I should add that I learned how to install experimental Debian packages from the Debian Experimental wiki here: http://wiki.debian.org/DebianExperimental

Thank you for the advice guys!:hattip: Whether it worked out or not I learned from it.