Launcher does not respect GTK theme

Bug #711982 reported by Matt Sturgeon
220
This bug affects 47 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
Ayatana Design
Opinion
Undecided
Unassigned
Unity
Opinion
Wishlist
Unassigned
unity-2d
Opinion
Wishlist
Unassigned
unity (Ubuntu)
Opinion
Wishlist
Unassigned
unity-2d (Ubuntu)
Opinion
Wishlist
Unassigned

Bug Description

With standard Gnome 2 and 3, changing the GTK theme also changes appearance of shell.
In Unity, the launcher and some icons always looks like with Ambiance theme.

There should either be new Unity-specific settings added to GTK+ to allow for developers to set panel themes or Unity should look at settings already in GTK+ and use them for the launcher.

See also: Bug #663524 "Top Panel does not respect GTK theme"
See also: Bug #605475 "Launcher does not respond to changes in icon theme".

Tags: needs-design
description: updated
Jay Taoko (jaytaoko)
Changed in unity:
status: New → Triaged
importance: Undecided → Medium
assignee: nobody → Neil J. Patel (njpatel)
milestone: none → 3.4.4
Revision history for this message
Zen Shaolin (zen-shaolin) wrote :

Some news?

Neil J. Patel (njpatel)
Changed in unity:
milestone: 3.4.4 → 3.6
Revision history for this message
Matt Sturgeon (mattsturgeon) wrote :

The problem with this bug is that GTK hasn't been designed to theme the Unity Launcher.

We need to decide if we are going to "hijack" already existing GTK properties (like e.g. some panel related properties like bg colour), or we could use GTK3 properties designed for Gnome Shell (do these exist?), or we could change GTK to take advantage of Unity (make patches and hope upstream accept them), or some combination of the above.

Basically the Launcher will either:
1. Not be customizable at all
2. Use some properties designed for other elements
3. Use some properties designed for Gnome Shell
4. Make new properties designed for Unity

IMHO, it's between 3 and 4. Maybe a combination of 2 & 3?

If we use properties that already exist then theme designers/maintainers won't have to update their themes, but we would have to be careful which properties to choose and also how we use them so as to keep compatibility with the property's intended purpose.

Changed in unity (Ubuntu):
status: New → Triaged
Revision history for this message
Matt Sturgeon (mattsturgeon) wrote :

Diidier, Neil,

How have you decided to go about integrating the Launcher with GTK properties?

Is the Launcher reading existing properties, or is it inventing properties?
If it is using existing properties, were any of them designed for Gnome Shell?

Revision history for this message
Matt Sturgeon (mattsturgeon) wrote :

*Didier, Neil (typo with double 'i')

Changed in unity:
milestone: 3.6 → 3.6.2
Revision history for this message
Marco Biscaro (marcobiscaro2112) wrote :

I don't know if this bug is a duplicate of bug #605475.

The another one is about the icons of applications on launcher, that should update when the icon theme is changed.

Apparently, this one is about the launcher's style (and not about the style of icons in launcher), right?

Revision history for this message
Zen Shaolin (zen-shaolin) wrote :

Yes,
This one is about the launcher's style (radiance, ambiance, etc.).
I really don't think this is a duplicate of bug #605475.

description: updated
Revision history for this message
Zen Shaolin (zen-shaolin) wrote :

I think we should delay the milestone to 3.6.4

Changed in unity-2d:
status: New → Confirmed
importance: Undecided → Wishlist
Changed in unity-2d (Ubuntu):
status: New → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Matt Sturgeon (mattsturgeon) wrote :

What properties of the launcher should be theme-sensitive, rather than hard-coded?

Background colour?
Background image?
Icon background colours?
Anything else?

Should anything (eg launcher's background image) be added as compiz plugin options (like the top panel's transparency or the launcher's width)?

Revision history for this message
Marco Biscaro (marcobiscaro2112) wrote :

@Matt: I think that the background properties. The icon background color is determined dinamically for each icon (and should be updated on icon theme change - see bug #605475).

Maybe, the background color of launcher could respect panel's transparency (what I think that's easier to implement). See bug #734133.

tags: added: needs-design
Revision history for this message
Zen Shaolin (zen-shaolin) wrote :

Someone can target this bug to unity 3.6.8?

Revision history for this message
Zen Shaolin (zen-shaolin) wrote :

Here is how unity should look with radiance theme.
Please, don't forget this issue...

Revision history for this message
Marco Biscaro (marcobiscaro2112) wrote :

@Zen: I think that some other visual questions should be discussed. At moment, the launcher is translucent. Why it should be opaque when the theme changes? If this behaviour will be followed, the launcher should be opaque for Ambiance too.

Changed in unity:
status: Triaged → Incomplete
Changed in unity (Ubuntu):
status: Triaged → Incomplete
Changed in unity-2d:
status: Confirmed → Incomplete
Changed in unity-2d (Ubuntu):
status: Confirmed → Incomplete
Revision history for this message
Marco Biscaro (marcobiscaro2112) wrote :

Setting unity's task as incomplete. Waiting for design feedback (probably this will be implemented only in Oneiric).

Revision history for this message
Zen Shaolin (zen-shaolin) wrote :

Your right Marco. The launcher should be translucent with other themes, but I'm not a GIMP master :-)

Revision history for this message
manny (estelar57) wrote :

maybe for now let the user decide the color and/or transparency level.

that would be the simplest choice and keep majority happy. At least this is what most launchers do today.

then on later versions it could grab the color from the panel, but users will want to tweak things even more to their liking anyway, so thats your best bet right now.

Revision history for this message
Zen Shaolin (zen-shaolin) wrote :

@manny : good idea. That would be a simple and good feature for Natty.

Revision history for this message
Julien Olivier (julo) wrote :

Maybe the question idea could be extended to the dash too? The dash's background color should match the top panel's color, just with some translucency.

Revision history for this message
sam riggs (samriggs100) wrote :

As a theme creator I wound up pulling my hair out for 2 days now trying to create a theme for the 11.04 unity. I was wondering why no matter what I did to the gtk it reverted back the default, I could not include pixmaps even just changing the artwork already in the gtk would not show up.
This is going to be very frustrating for theme developers, to the point that is pretty much a waste of time if all we can do is create a meta city theme only.
I been searching all over the place for an answer only to find it was hard coded.
One solution (Let the users decide there own theme).
Hopefully you can implement this as most linux users love the idea of personalizing there own desktop.
This now has been taken away for the most part by hard coding the gtk or limiting it to a point that it is no use even trying or bothering with it.
Just thought you might want to hear from a person that likes making themes as I have for others also.

Stephen M. Webb (bregma)
Changed in unity:
assignee: Neil J. Patel (njpatel) → nobody
Andrea Azzarone (azzar1)
Changed in ayatana-design:
status: New → Opinion
Changed in unity:
status: Incomplete → Opinion
importance: Medium → Wishlist
Changed in unity-2d (Ubuntu):
importance: Undecided → Wishlist
Changed in unity (Ubuntu):
importance: Undecided → Wishlist
Changed in unity-2d:
status: Incomplete → Opinion
Changed in unity (Ubuntu):
status: Incomplete → Opinion
Changed in unity-2d (Ubuntu):
status: Incomplete → Opinion
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