changing fonts and icon theme in gnome-shell

[calanor]

Its embarrassing, but I am unable to find any dialog in gnome-shell to change fonts config and icon set.
It may be really trivial. How to I change the icon theme ?

[tox]

post this to the F15 Development sub-forum ( not in Rawhide ) a Mod might wanna move this over and delete this post of mine

---------- Post added at 10:49 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:18 AM ----------

you cannot change the icon theme in Gnome3 as far as i know. , how to change fonts, i dont know, but have a look in system-settings

[oupsemma]

Check the following links, as gnome-shell works differently from the GoodOldGnome: :
http://www.jonboy60.com/2010/07/12/howto-modify-font-in-gnome-shell/
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1479239

There's a handy cheat sheet for gnome-shell shortcuts here:
http://live.gnome.org/GnomeShell/CheatSheet

[calanor]

Thanks for the links, I couldn't find how to change icon theme though.

[oupsemma]

Possible answer about changing the icons theme here:
http://half-left.deviantart.com/art/GNOME-Shell-Tron-Legacy-191396881

Don't install this theme, though, as it's for pre-relayout branches, which have Places and Recent Documents on the left Panel.
Fedora 15 uses relayout branches and there's only Favorites Applications.

[calanor]

Still doesn't tell about changing icon theme from fedora to something else.

[oupsemma]

Been exploring the files under /usr/share/icons /usr/share/themes and /usr/share/gnome-shell and can't find how to change the icons theme (not that I want to change mine, though).

Having found http://gnome-shell.deviantart.com/ , I've been installing this gnome-shell 2.91.x theme, Gnome Dark Shell, without the wallpaper, from half-left:
http://half-left.deviantart.com/journal/37636660/#/d36szax

Screenshots are here:
http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/969/newgnomeshell1.th.png (http://img140.imageshack.us/i/newgnomeshell1.png/) http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/792/newgnomeshell2.th.png (http://img141.imageshack.us/i/newgnomeshell2.png/) http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/6066/newgnomeshell3.th.png (http://img524.imageshack.us/i/newgnomeshell3.png/)

Exploring the new theme folder did not bring any light about icons, though.
May be you could ask half-left for some advice about tweaking icons?

[vallimar]

It may still use the gconf setting (or a ported dconf one) so load up gconf-editor and look around.
I forget what key it's stored under and I don't have access to anything to look at present.
Search for "Fedora" or "icon" and look at the keys under apps or desktop trees.

[Dangermouse]

Might be missing something:C here but wont right clicking on Deskop then select change desktop background and then theme and customize and you change the icons and fonts there..(same as you would normally)

[oupsemma]

Might be missing something:C here but wont right clicking on Deskop then select change desktop background and then theme and customize and you change the icons and fonts there..(same as you would normally)
Here we are talking about the gnome-shell that is included in Fedora 15, and you can't do that; the settings in gnome-shell and Gnome3 differ a lot from GoodOldGnome
Check the FAQ here: http://gnome-shell.deviantart.com/

It may still use the gconf setting (or a ported dconf one) so load up gconf-editor and look around.
No, been trying that before and it isn't working.

[oupsemma]

When it comes to eye-candy, I'm not sure the ultimate goal of Gnome3 and gnome-shell is to let you tweak everything on your system; it's more to refocus on what you can do with your computer and eliminate what's obtrusive and time consuming.

And GConf is being migrated to GSettings:
http://live.gnome.org/GnomeGoals/GSettingsMigration
http://library.gnome.org/devel/gio/2.27/ch28.html
http://library.gnome.org/devel/gio/unstable/GSettings.html

[calanor]

I wouldn't classify changing icon theme or fonts as tweaking everything but rather as basic configuration option. :)

[leigh123linux]

I wouldn't classify changing icon theme or fonts as tweaking everything but rather as basic configuration option. :)

I agree, this is why I'm dumping Gnome3.

[oupsemma]

Of course, customizing the fonts is important, everybody has different vision problems, and it can still be done easily with tweaking the gnome-shell css file.

But personally I only have a small computer and I can't see the point of changing icons or wallpaper on it; when it's powered on, I'm using it, with many desktop windows opened and applications launched in full screen.
If I wanted bling-bling and bumping applications launchers, I'd go for KDE! :P

[twohot]

I agree, this is why I'm dumping Gnome3.

Coming from Leigh, this has got to be serious. But how can you have a DE and not be able to tweak fonts and icons?

A Fedora ambassador will have a hard time propagating gnome3 because modifying css is not exactly user-friendly. Looks like gnome3 is another synonym for geek3 :dis:

[RahulSundaram]

Hi

Modifying CSS is not necessary. dconf commands and UI can be used here. Upstream afaik has already introduced a UI for font changes that is not yet pulled in Fedora 15.

[DCOH]

Doesn't work to bad if you use Gnome3/openbox then you do have a little control of Gnome shell.

[tox]

Hi

Modifying CSS is not necessary. dconf commands and UI can be used here. Upstream afaik has already introduced a UI for font changes that is not yet pulled in Fedora 15. will that get into F15 before it goes final?

[vallimar]

Played around a little today, figured out how to change the icon theme, at least somewhat.
You need to install dconf-editor and gconf-editor. In dconf-editor, change the key
"org.gnome.desktop.interface.icon-theme" to the name of your theme. I chose "Faenza-Dark".
I changed it under gconf too to be safe "desktop.gnome.interface.icon-theme".

You can manually tweak the fonts as well. Have the latest F15 gnome-shell, 2.91.91-2 and
still no sign of any font config settings.

---------- Post added at 07:26 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:17 PM ----------

Also, saw a tip on webupd8 before about how to get the minimize/maximize buttons back.
Change the key "desktop.gnome.shell.windows.button_layout".
I changed mine back to "menu:minimize,maximize,close".
I also had to logout and back in for it to take effect.

---------- Post added at 07:51 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:26 PM ----------

Okay, last thing.. if you want to change the mouse cursor as well, in dconf
"org.gnome.desktop.interface.cursor-theme". And in gconf, also change
"desktop.gnome.peripherals.mouse.cursor-theme".

You can find out the name of the theme by looking at the "Name=" value inside the
index.theme file. Set both keys to the same value, should take effect immediately
if you have done it right if I recall, else try a relog. I went with "Protozoa-Blu".

[twohot]

Thanks vallimar, that was very helpful

... what is the difference between dconf and gconf and when should each be used? I'm looking for ways to tweak the 'selection' colours on GTK3 ... want to darken the blue background so the white texts can stand out. If someone wanted to change the colour of the titlebar, where does he/she go? Those things used to be easy to manipulate in Gnome2. What about font hinting ... my monospace font looks distorted. Is that Deja-Vu? It can't be.

[calanor]

Thanks vallimar, dconf works. I am using Faenza dark and droid sans without changing anything in gconf.
Thanks once again :)

[vallimar]

Thanks vallimar, that was very helpful

... what is the difference between dconf and gconf and when should each be used? I'm looking for ways to tweak the 'selection' colours on GTK3 ... want to darken the blue background so the white texts can stand out. If someone wanted to change the colour of the titlebar, where does he/she go? Those things used to be easy to manipulate in Gnome2. What about font hinting ... my monospace font looks distorted. Is that Deja-Vu? It can't be.

The Fedora default fonts have always been lousy by my estimation. If you poke around
the dconf-editor, you'll see font and colour settings.. the colours are usually prefixed with
gtk_ if I recall, I cannot check currently. Font hinting I think was located underneath
gnome-settings-daemon, xsettings -- or something non-obvious.

As far as the difference, dconf uses the new gsettings method, which seems to mostly
be the same as the old gconf system with a different name, api and organization.
The way it saves settings is different too, a binary config file instead of readable flat
files. I don't troll the gnome mailing lists, so other than "why not?", I have no reason to give
you for the change. As to why you need both for some things, that is because gnome
has done their typical botch job and didn't manage to get everything converted, so they
are just going to release Gnome3 with some on gsettings, the rest on gconf and they'll
update as they go along.

[RahulSundaram]

will that get into F15 before it goes final?

Sure.

[megaloman]

Coming from Leigh, this has got to be serious. But how can you have a DE and not be able to tweak fonts and icons?

A Fedora ambassador will have a hard time propagating gnome3 because modifying css is not exactly user-friendly. Looks like gnome3 is another synonym for geek3 :dis:

it looks like, gnome 3 is for newbies - for people who play with their computer, who spent time on facebook, youtube, etc. it's definitely not for people who work with computer.

I loved gnome 2.x because it made my work easy - I could set it up the way I wanted, switch pidgin to silent mode and just carry on working. Gnome 3 makes simple tasks difficult, quick things to take much longer and does not allow you to simply configure.

At the moment I am disappointed and frustrated - probably won't upgrade F14 on my work computer for a couple of months and see how it goes. XFCE is an option, but is very limited and not exactly what I want. EXDE is promising but don't know how long it's going to take them to release version 1.

[fpmurphy]

The gnome-tweak-tool v2.91.92 RPM is now available for download. (gnome-tweak-tool-2.91.92-3.fc16.noarch). Use Applications to select or the search tool.

[bruce89]

As far as the difference, dconf uses the new gsettings method, which seems to mostly
be the same as the old gconf system with a different name, api and organization.
The way it saves settings is different too, a binary config file instead of readable flat
files. I don't troll the gnome mailing lists, so other than "why not?", I have no reason to give
you for the change.

The reason is because gconf depended on a load of deprecated libraries (ORBit). Also, having GSettings in GLib is good because other desktops can use it (they don't have to use the dconf backend).