[RESOLVED] Global theme layout for manually installing desktop themes

[Princey]

Gone are the days when installing look and feel themes just worked. In the version that accompanies Oracular, it's a complete hit and miss to get themes installed from the theme store using the theme manager to get new themes. There's always a particular package that it cannot find and manually finding, downloading and placing it in the temp folder still throws the same error. I've spent days reading up online with the vast majority telling you to manually install it and even point you to the folder for user installed themes

/home/username/.local/share/plasma/look-and-feel

I've tried downloading each component and placing them in the sub-folder with the theme name. Herein lies the problem: I had two json files asking to overwrite. If I place the other in a sub folder the theme still doesn't even work. I can manually install some components using the theme manager like "colors", "plasma style", "icons", "cursors". But the rest, cannot be installed that way such as "login Screen (SDDM)", "splash screen", "Window Decorations" and "Application Style".

Let's throw a working example. Say I want to install the theme Lenny Light in the theme manager. After it says it can't find the color scheme even if you manually download and install it and try again, you'll still get the error message. The theme consists of six parts, namely:

• Lenny Plasma theme
• Lenny color schemes
• Lenny Aurorae theme
• Lenny Kvantum
• Lenny Konsole theme
• Lenny wallpaper

I create a sub folder under

./local/share/plasma/look-and-feel/lenny-light

Following the documentation on themes, I create a sub folder for each of the items making sure that the

metada.json

file is in the root of the sub folder "lenny-light". However, the look and feel archive does have a metadata.json file as well. So where do I put it? In a nutshell, we have scattered information all over the place for manually installing themes but only those for kde5 seems to work (well, it was simpler). So my question after all my rambling is this, how are theme folders and sub folders ironed out for kde6 and how can one arrange them to manually install a theme from kdelook.org?

[claydoh]

Global themes (which are just meta-packages) go in ~/.local/share/plasma/look-and-feel/name-of-thing/

Go up one folder, and see the other directories there.
desktoptheme is for your Plasma Styles (or plasma themes, not to be confused with global themes) are installed, just as if you installed this component separately.

You will see other directories that will make some sense, but some oddballs are in different places, I assume for legacy reasons, as well as being independent of the desktop environment.

~/.local/share/color-schemes/ -- colors schemes
cursor, icons, go to the local user location, independent of the desktop environment. ~/.local/share/icons, for example.
SDDM themes go to /usr/share/sddm, and also are independent of the desktop environment.

Not all theme bits use a json metadata file, but you need all the separate theme packages installed

t only those for kde5 seems to work (well, it was simpler)

No, theming is 100% identical in Plasma 6, other than some components needing to support Plasma 6. Directory locations and methods used are 100% identical. They doo seem to do a bit better filtering out the stuff that doesn't work in Plasma 6, which may be part of the problem as well.

It is easier if the theme installer is freaking out to manually download the theme file that is missing -- it really may not be there any longer --and install it using the GUI, if it still exists

Look at the global theme metadata, or the error the Get New tool shows. It is easy to check:

"X-KPackage-Dependencies": [
  "kns://colorschemes.knsrc/api.kde-look.org/1370890",
  "kns://plasma-themes.knsrc/api.kde-look.org/1370889",
  "kns://aurorae.knsrc/api.kde-look.org/1574249",
  "kns://wallpaper.knsrc/api.kde-look.org/2218346",
  "kns://wallpaper.knsrc/api.kde-look.org/2218347",
  "kns://wallpaper.knsrc/api.kde-look.org/2022556",
  "kns://wallpaper.knsrc/api.kde-look.org/2066157",
  "kns://icons.knsrc/api.kde-look.org/1296407",
  "kns://xcursor.knsrc/api.kde-look.org/1411743"​

The store URL is the kde-look part of the address: kde-look.org/1370890 and so on.

Part of the problem is the Pling website doesn't seem to be able to handle traffic, particularly with Global Themes wanting to download a lot of things. Then there is the issue of these being user-uploaded and not much vetting, missing components that were removed, or don't actually support Plasma 6, or even the current Plasma 5.

Yes, it is a bit messy, but once you get the idea and general locations for things, it isn't overly hard to manage, or even create one's own personal Global Theme

Me personally, I seldom use full global themes, since everyone's taste is bad, to me personally, imnsho

[Princey]

Thanks for the reply, Claydoh. So you're saying either I go fully manual with the installation or edit the metadata for the global theme metadata? Just want to be sure. In addition, there's no desktoptheme folder under .local or plasma. I'm assuming in the absence, I just create one?

Edit: Never mind. I got it installed by creating the folders that weren't there ("./local/aurorae/themes/", the desktoptheme folder under plasma as well) then applied each separately from the control panel/system settings. I'll mark this as resolved. Just wondering if I can write up a proper howto for those struggling with the same issue as the ability to alter to your heart's content the look and feel of your DE is one of the major selling points of KDE.

[claydoh]

No, don't muck with editing the metadata, unless you really want to.



Manually install the missing bit(s) either via the Get New Stuff tool directly, or manually download them from the KDE Store, and install them using System Settingsl using the Install from File option in the appropriate Appearance section. As far as I can tell, even if a dependency for a Global Theme is missing, the Global Theme is still 'installed", it just won't have the missing component, so enabling it won't enable that missing bit.

Say that the claydoh global theme I just now created in my mind has an SDDM theme that is missing for some reason. The rest of the Global theme components should still be applied, as far as I know.

If it is just the KDE Store website hosting the files being flaky, it means you just want to try and manually install the missing bit via System Settings.

Remember, Global Themes don't actually have any theme files at all, it unfortunately is a bit similar to Linux distro packaging. They are just lists of the individual theme component packages someone has put together, so installing it is essentially installing all the bits for you instead of you doing so individually.

[Princey]

No, don't muck with editing the metadata, unless you really want to.



Manually install the missing bit(s) either via the Get New Stuff tool directly, or manually download them from the KDE Store, and install them using System Settingsl using the Install from File option in the appropriate Appearance section. As far as I can tell, even if a dependency for a Global Theme is missing, the Global Theme is still 'installed", it just won't have the missing component, so enabling it won't enable that missing bit.

Say that the claydoh global theme I just now created in my mind has an SDDM theme that is missing for some reason. The rest of the Global theme components should still be applied, as far as I know.

If it is just the KDE Store website hosting the files being flaky, it means you just want to try and manually install the missing bit via System Settings.

Remember, Global Themes don't actually have any theme files at all, it unfortunately is a bit similar to Linux distro packaging. They are just lists of the individual theme component packages someone has put together, so installing it is essentially installing all the bits for you instead of you doing so individually.

Yeah, I got that. Some I installed via 'install from file' option, others, I had to manually copy to ./local/plasma. The "./local/aurorae/" folder, I had to create for certain parts of the theme to work and manually copy the necessary files there.

All in all, it was a worthwhile experience going through as I've learnt more about my system that way when I manually did it. Like you said, with this experience, I can even try creating my own theme with the knowledge acquired.