Widgets are in square box of background colour

[Thomas Kluyver]

Binary package hint: gtk-qt-engine-kde4

This is noticeable in firefox, where it is rendering the widgets on a foreign background (in webpages). Each widget is enclosed in a rectangular area of grey background (presumably the system window background that it would normally expect to be on).

Attached is a screenshot from firefox showing this.

[Thomas Kluyver (takluyver)]

And a screenshot from Konqueror, showing that it doesn't do the same thing (i.e. the problem is specifically in going from gtk to qt).

[Yuriy Kozlov (yuriy-kozlov)]

Thank you for filing this bug. I can confirm this.

[Rubén T.F. (rubentrf)]

I can confirm this too, using KDE 4.0.3 (KUbuntu Hardy packages). (Firefox 3.0b5 looks ugly....)

[Montblanc (montblanc)]

I confirm this bug. It happens both in KDE3 and KDE4 and yes, the background of the rectangular area is the same of the KDE system window background. Look at the attachment to see how widgets are rendered in my case.

[Dhaval Patel (dhuv)]

I can confirm this bug using the Intrepid Beta. I just applied all updates today and it still happens.

[Mat Lehmann (matlehmann)]

I am having the same problem. The weired thing is: the first time I start firefox after a reboot, widgets look - without the grey box. But when I restart firefox, widgets are in this ugly box again.

I tried changing the GTK-style in the system-settings (QT4 and QTCurve and others) but to no visible effect.

This really bugs me, because it looks very ugly and because its so seemingly undeterministic.

(I am on Kunbuntu 8.10 with all updates)

[Andrea P (pinnisi)]

I'm still having the same problem in Jaunty.. switched back to gnome.

[Thomas Kluyver (takluyver)]

Try using the GTK style Qtcurve in Jaunty--this provides widgets that look similar to Qt4/Oxygen (albeit not identical), but works nicely without leaving ugly artefacts. (This is a workaround, not a fix)

[Andrea P (pinnisi)]

This bug should have high priority. I don't think that's difficult to fix but make kde really poor for "switchers".
By the way, I'm a coder and I could try to fix this if I can.

[Thomas Kluyver (takluyver)]

I believe this is the homepage for the project, if you want to get involved with it: http://code.google.com/p/gtk-qt-engine/

I guess it's marked as low priority here because the default for Jaunty seems to have been switched to Qtcurve (at least, it switched for me during upgrade), so people won't see it unless they specifically set it to use gtk-qt-engine.

[Dhaval Patel (dhuv)]

I think a better workaround than QtCurve is OxyGnome. Install that theme for Gnome and you will notice that KDE can still use the Oxygen theme and Gnome apps look very similar.

[dotancohen (dotancohen)]

> I think a better workaround than QtCurve is OxyGnome. Install that
> theme for Gnome and you will notice that KDE can still use the Oxygen
> theme and Gnome apps look very similar.

How do Kubuntu users install Gnome themes, short of installing the full Gnome desktop?

[Dhaval Patel (dhuv)]

I just downloaded and extracted the oxygnome directory in /usr/share/themes and in System Settings -> Appreance -> GTK Styles I selected that theme.

I have attached a zip of what I have on my computer.

[Thomas Kluyver (takluyver)]

I ought to point out that Qtcurve is in the repository, so you can do "sudo
aptitude install gtk2-engines-qtcurve", which is easier and more secure.

[smlx (sml)]

The problem with this is that both QtCurve and OxyGnome are both hacky
solutions and fail if you use any other theme in KDE than default. A
better solution would be for GTK apps to allow QT to do the actual
rendering of widgets. QT does this already:
http://labs.trolltech.com/blogs/2008/05/13/introducing-qgtkstyle/

Anyone know if there is anything similar for GTK ?

On Thu, Apr 16, 2009 at 9:13 PM, Dhaval Patel <email address hidden> wrote:
> I think a better workaround than QtCurve is OxyGnome. Install that theme
> for Gnome and you will notice that KDE can still use the Oxygen theme
> and Gnome apps look very similar.
>
> --
> Widgets are in square box of background colour
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/223274
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

[Thomas Kluyver (takluyver)]

Well, gtk-qt-engine, which this bug is about, does precisely that. The trouble is that it doesn't work very well, especially for Firefox.

I don't agree that QtCurve is a hacky solution: it merely provides a GTK theme that doesn't look out of place among Qt applications. I can't see most people worrying that not every app looks exactly the same. And if they do, they can use kde-style-qtcurve as well.

Of course, you could always use the qgtkstyle you mention and just let GTK do all the actual rendering!

[smlx (sml)]

On Fri, Apr 17, 2009 at 4:54 PM, Thomas K <email address hidden> wrote:
> Well, gtk-qt-engine, which this bug is about, does precisely that. The
> trouble is that it doesn't work very well, especially for Firefox.
>
> I don't agree that QtCurve is a hacky solution: it merely provides a GTK
> theme that doesn't look out of place among Qt applications. I can't see
> most people worrying that not every app looks exactly the same. And if
> they do, they can use kde-style-qtcurve as well.
True, I merely meant that it wasn't an _ideal_ solution. It looks like
there is some activity on that repo you linked, so perhaps we'll see
some work on the outstanding issues with gtk-qt-engine.
>
> Of course, you could always use the qgtkstyle you mention and just let
> GTK do all the actual rendering!
>

[Dhaval Patel (dhuv)]

As I said in my previous quote, its a WORKAROUND, just like using QTCurve. They are GTK themes that look very much like the QT themes. This is only until the bugs get fixed.

I have heard of QGTKStyle but did not get a chance to try it since the package is not in the repository. Whats the easiest way to get it on Kubuntu?

[Jonathan Thomas (echidnaman)]

QGTKStyle is part of Qt itself, actually. As long as you have Qt installed you have it. You can set GTK as your Qt theme in the Qt config application (qtconfig-qt4)

[Jonathan Thomas (echidnaman)]

Sadly, gtk-qt-engine is a quite broken piece of software and has been removed from distribution. (See bug 404930)
Unfortunately this means that the large number of bugs will not be seeing fixes. :(

For now, the best integration option for KDE is the QtCurve style, (gtk2-engines-qtcurve) which offers a theme quite similar to the default Oxygen theme. The configuration module for gtk-qt-engine has been salvaged and is now living in the kcm-gtk package, which will be available and installed by default in Kubuntu 9.10.

Thanks for understanding. This package tried its best, but in the end did not live up to the standards required by anybody who doesn't like looking at a broken Oxygen imitation.