Themes Ubuntu Linux Darkness gtk2 (RGBA True)

Description:

To those who vote bad, please write a comment with the reasons, it will give me more to work with in order to improve the theme.

Info for updating from v1.0
The files and folders has been restructured since v1.0, some files moved and some renamed etc. Because of this it is best to completely remove any previous installations of the Darkness theme prior to installing this (only the actual theme, the murrine engine and rgba module can remain unchanged).


ABOUT:

Darkness is a set of different themes and skins wich main purpose was not to publish here but rather to have a consistent look for my own desktop. The complete sets does have inspirations from both windows and mac but is not intended to be a lookalike for either (wich should be quite obvious from the screenshots).

This GTK theme primarily uses the Murrine gtk2 engine with rgba enabled but also has a few areas using pixmaps. It is however not a "plug & play" theme and does require a little bit of work to install.

INSTALLATION:

To use this theme you first need to enable window transparency (rgba). I don't know how that works for all distributions so the guide below is for Ubuntu only. For those using other distributions you will unfortunately have to find another solution.

Notice/Warning: Not all computers and/or applications will play nice with this enabled. If you want to install the theme i advice you to first test rgba on your system by following the instructions on the wiki-link below. Darkness is only a murrine theme and i do not have anything to do with the repository or rgba window opacity other then having it enabled in my theme, my help for troubleshooting if any problem may occur will therefor be limited.

For more information about window transparency you can check these two links:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DesktopTeam/RgbaGtkWithPPA/
http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2010/02/enable-rgba-window-transparency-in.html
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1412052

First step is to install the things required to activate rgba.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:erik-b-andersen/rgba-gtk
sudo apt-get update && sudo aptitude upgrade
sudo apt-get install gtk2-module-rgba

Darkness gtk theme uses different opacity-settings then the default. Because of this we need to change the opacity levels manually and then recompile the murrine gtk2 engine.

sudo apt-get install checkinstall
sudo apt-get build-dep gtk2-engines-murrine
mkdir tempbuild
cd tempbuild
apt-get source gtk2-engines-murrine
ls

(cd into the only folder that exists)

gedit src/support.h

Scroll down to find the section "/*Opacity Settings*/". You can change the opacity levels to what you want but for the windows to blend in nicely with my emerald theme you need to set WINDOW_OPACITY to 70 or 85 (depending on what emerald version you use). My own personal settings are as below:

Higher transparency, use with emerald theme Darkness 70

/* Opacity settings */
#define GRADIENT_OPACITY 1.00
#define WINDOW_OPACITY 0.70
#define ENTRY_OPACITY 0.92
#define NOTEBOOK_OPACITY 0.85
#define MENUBAR_OPACITY 0.70
#define MENUBAR_GLOSSY_OPACITY 0.70
#define MENUBAR_STRIPED_OPACITY 0.70
#define TOOLBAR_OPACITY 0.70
#define TOOLBAR_GLOSSY_OPACITY 0.70
#define MENU_OPACITY 0.70
#define TOOLTIP_OPACITY 0.70

Less transparency and darker, use with emerald theme Darkness 85

/* Opacity settings */
#define GRADIENT_OPACITY 1.00
#define WINDOW_OPACITY 0.85
#define ENTRY_OPACITY 0.92
#define NOTEBOOK_OPACITY 0.90
#define MENUBAR_OPACITY 0.85
#define MENUBAR_GLOSSY_OPACITY 0.85
#define MENUBAR_STRIPED_OPACITY 0.85
#define TOOLBAR_OPACITY 0.85
#define TOOLBAR_GLOSSY_OPACITY 0.85
#define MENU_OPACITY 0.85
#define TOOLTIP_OPACITY 0.85

When the changes are done, save and go back to terminal.

./configure --prefix=/usr/ --enable-animation
make
sudo checkinstall

After the above steps to activate window opacity you may however need to restart X or simply log out and then back in. When that is done you can install the theme as you would with any other gtk theme.

Please note that it has been a while since i did this myself and may have forgotten or left out something. If something is not working with the guide above, drop me a note and i will try to figure out what may be missing.

CUSTOMIZING & OPTIONAL SETTINGS

Blur Windows: First off it is adviced to activate Blur Windows in compiz. This will make it much easier to see the active window.

1. Start CompizConfig Settings Manager.
2. Go to "Blur Windows".
3. In the textfield for "Alpha blur windows" type in "any".
4. Activate the checkbox for "Alpha Blur".
5. Change "Blur Filter" to "Gaussian".
6. Change "Gaussian Radius" to 5 (or play around some until it suits you).
7. Change "Gaussian Strength" to 0.2 (or same as gaussian radius, play around some).

Colortones: Each of my Darkness gtk themes has 10 colortones to choose from. Since there are a rgba version and a non rgba version i have chosen not to make each colortone into a separate theme since that would result in 20 different themes.

Inside the gtk-2.0 folder you will find an additional folder named "colors". To change the colortone simply copy (not cut/move) the 2 files (colors.rc + panel_button_prelight.png) from a specific colorfolder and paste into top of the colors-folder, replace the existing files.
Example: copy the files from gtk-2.0/colors/red and paste into gtk-2.0/colors/

After you have changed the color you will need to reload the theme or simply log out and then back in.


Gnome-panel: The gnome panels has a default background. If you wish to change this background and/or make them transparent follow these steps:

1. Open the file panel.rc inside the gtk-2.0 folder.
2. Add a # at the beginning of the line: bg_pixmap[NORMAL] = "pixmaps/panel_bg_default.png"
3. Open up the panel properties window and click "Background".
4. Choose a background image for the panel.
5. Reload the Darkness theme (or log out and then back in).

The theme has a few different panel backgrounds included inside the gtk-2.0/pixmaps folder, each are 32px high:
panel_bg_default.png = Default background, not transparent, made for top panels
panel_70_btm.png = Transparent, bottom panels, opacity settings at 70
panel_70_top.png = Transparent, top panels, opacity settings at 70
panel_85_btm.png = Transparent, bottom panels, opacity settings at 85
panel_85_top.png = Transparent, top panels, opacity settings at 85


Open Office: The theme has a small fix included for Open Office when using a dark theme. The actual fix may not be perfect but it should work fine. For now i have temporary made use of the NOX theme for gtk2 but with a few minor changes in base colors and also making it possible for it to read chosen colortones of the Darkness theme.

Install method 1:

in terminal, cd into the fixes folder included inside the theme

mkdir ~/bin
cp ooffice ~/bin/ooffice

Open the file ooffice located in ~/bin with a suitable texteditor and uncomment the correct line wich corresponds to install method 1 and location of where darkness theme is installed.

Install method 2 (requires root-privileges):

in terminal, cd into the fixes folder included inside the theme

sudo mv /usr/bin/ooffice /usr/bin/oofficeBIN
sudo cp ooffice /usr/bin/ooffice

Open the file ooffice located in /usr/bin with a suitable texteditor and uncomment the correct line wich corresponds to install method 2 and location of where darkness theme is installed

Please note that the ooffice file located in either ~/bin or /usr/bin must be set as an executable file.

Source: http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php/Darkness+gtk2+%28rgba+true%29?content=124548