On Friday 22 June 2018 14:30:09 E. Liddell wrote:
On Fri, 22 Jun 2018 09:17:34 -0700
William Morder <doctor_contendo(a)zoho.com> wrote:
I don't know if these issues are really
connected; I only know that they
seem to occur together. Feel free to separate the two issues if that is
more accurate.
Issue #1
I noticed that my system colors are not applied to some applications. In
particular, the Firefox/Iceweasel and Seamonkey browsers. Sometimes when
I start up, these take on my KDE4 Plasma color settings (even when KDE4
is not installed); sometimes (maybe one-third to one-half of my
installations), everything in the GUI is white, sort of like in Gnome
desktops that I've seen. (Again, Gnome is not installed, though I do use
some standalone applications.) I can make PaleMoon take on my TDE color
scheme settings, and when I uncheck the button that says "apply to non
TDE applications", etc., it, too, turns all white like these other apps;
however, PaleMoon never takes on the color scheme from the KDE4 Plasma
desktop. And then, at other times, after I install I get my TDE settings.
(Maybe one out of ten installations, I will have Seamonkey and
Firefox/Iceweasel use my TDE color scheme settings.) Then again,
sometimes they will use my KDE4 settings. Both are available in my TDE
desktop, but only KDE4 settings are available in that desktop.
Sounds like you're hitting a familiar problem with Linux GUI applications:
they're all built with different widget sets, and attempts to transfer the
colour schemes for different sets around are fraught.
Currently, there are no less than three versions of QT and two of GTK in
common use, and I find the only way to get them to behave themselves is
to configure them all separately. Browsers in the Firefox family use GTK2
or GTK3, depending on which browser and which version.
Unfortunately, I never did find a nice GUI configurator for writing system
GTK configs without a GTK-based desktop installed. QT3 is configured
through TDE, QT4 through KDE4 or the included Trolltech settings widget,
and qt5ct works adequately for QT5.
TDE
Trinity Control Center/Colors
x Apply colors to non-TDE applications
KDE4
System Settings/Application Appearance/Colors/Options
x Apply colors to non-KDE4 applications
I don't so much care if they use the KDE4 settings or the TDE color
settings, just so long as it's not white. This isn't just that I hate
that my pretty desktop is spoiled; I started using these settings because
a white screen triggers a migraine - especially when I am working late at
night in a dark room. I impose dark screen settings on my default
browsers and other applications, too, for this reason. Also, there is a
practical reason: whenever I see a white screen, this usually reminds me
that I have opened that application as root, so that I am sure to be
careful I don't really mess up or delete stuff.
Yeah, sounds about right--I've been setting up my desktops with white text
on black/blue for more than twenty years for similar reasons.
Try unchecking those two boxes you mention first. Then create a file
.gtkrc-2.0 in your user's home directory and put the following in it:
I already did that. I checked and unchecked them numerous times; checked one
but not the other, restarted after changing them, etc.; but no changes.
gtk-color-scheme = "bg_color: #000044\nfg_color: #fff\nbase_color:
#000\ntext_color: #fff\nselected_bg_color: #0ff\nselected_fg_color:
#000\ntooltip_bg_color: #0ff\ntooltip_fg_color: #000"
If that causes an abrupt colour change in your browser chrome, it should be
easy enough to work it into a more standard colour scheme by adjusting the
hex. If not, we may have a little more work to do (my file is actually a
lot more extensive and defines a variation on the standard Industrial
style, because that was the easiest way to get usable scrollbars with such
dark colours).
Styling GTK3 is not that easy, unfortunately--it took me just under 400
lines of CSS to get something I could live with. I can hand my file over
to you to play with if it turns out you need it (the colour information is
exposed at the top, so fairly easy to change).
Yes, please. From what you have given me here, it looks like something I could
use. I could just change it to suit my own needs. And 400 lines doesn't scare
me.
It occurred to me to try to purge the offending
applications, then to try
to reinstall them from within the KDE4 desktop environment, and to do the
same within TDE, but this made no difference. Thus far, my only options
are either to live with the lack of color, or to reinstall my system yet
again, and hope for the best.
Issue #2
This may or may not be related; it could be a permissions problem. I now
find that some of my external hard drives cannot be mounted or used,
because I can only access them as root. Even if I wanted to use them as
root, it means that I cannot access music files with my media player, for
example. Again, this has happened before, though not often, usually after
a fresh installation. In the past, it seems the only cure is to reinstall
everything. However, since I've not [correction, *now*] got this Devuan
Jessie system working pretty well, I don't want to mess up a good thing,
especially if there is an easy fix.
I've already tried changing permissions, and that sort of thing. I am
guessing that there might be some kind of config files buried somewhere.
I've searched, but thus far I can find nothing.
My first instinct would be to check /etc/fstab for missing "user" options
and any odd umasks. Also, udev does funky things with permissions
sometimes. Of course, I'm using a different distro without an automounter,
so I may be way off-base.
E. Liddell
Thanks, will try these suggestions. And I would like to play with that config
file of yours that you mentioned. I am pretty good at plagiarizing code.
Bill