[SOLVED] How can I change the GTK engine on Cinnamon >= 2.0?

[terdon]

I just upgraded to Cinnamon 2.0.14 on my LMDE (UP7) laptop and in this new version I am unable to change the GTK engine used. Menus and widgets in general look very ugly (click on the images below for a larger version):





When they should look something like this:



In principle, I should be able to change this using Cinnamon's own settings app in System Settings => Themes => Other Settings => Controls:



However, while most options available in that window work (Window Borders for example), the "Controls" and "Icons" options are ignored.

Starting from version 2.0, Cinnamon has become independent of Gnome and in fact conflicts with it. I have therefore had to remove Gnome to install this version of Cinnamon which may be relevant. I do have the necessary GTK packages installed though:

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    $ dpkg -l | grep engines | grep gtk | awk '{printf "%s  %-26s %-22s\n",$1,$2,$3}'
    ii  gtk2-engines:amd64         1:2.20.2-3            
    ii  gtk2-engines-aurora        1.5.1-3               
    ii  gtk2-engines-candido       0.9.1-pablo4          
    ii  gtk2-engines-magicchicken  1.1.1-9               
    ii  gtk2-engines-moblin        1.1.1-1.1             
    ii  gtk2-engines-murrine:amd64 0.98.1.1-5            
    ii  gtk2-engines-nodoka        0.7.0-1.2             
    ii  gtk2-engines-oxygen:amd64  1.3.3-2               
    ii  gtk2-engines-pixbuf:amd64  2.24.20-1             
    ii  gtk2-engines-wonderland    1.0-8                 
    ii  gtk2-engines-xfce          3.0.1-2               
    ii  gtk3-engines-oxygen:amd64  1.1.4-1               
    ii  gtk3-engines-unico:amd64   1.0.2-1    

So, how can I choose the GTK engine used by Cinnamon to make my new desktop pretty?


EDIT: I have posted the same question on the Unix & Linux stackechange here and a user suggested I should try installing

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gtk-chtheme

which works perfectly for programs using GTK2 (e.g. firefox) but not for those using GTK3 (like nemo). Any ideas on how to change the GTK3 engine as well?

[eanfrid]

Engines are not enough. You must also install relevant themes, like "cinnamon-themes", so you should have at least Mint-X and Mint-Z themes. Most gtk2-only engines/themes are useless since Cinnamon uses gtk3 ones. There are many additional gtk2/3 themes available from Noobslab and Webupd8 PPAs.

[Monsta]

When they should look something like this:

That's Mint-X theme. Choose that theme in the settings and get what you want.

how can I choose the GTK engine used by Cinnamon

Any ideas on how to change the GTK3 engine as well?

I don't know who told you about these engines, but that person surely led you astray by telling you either not enough or too much. Engines are not used by Cinnamon or any other desktop environment; they are used by the themes. An engine is used for drawing theme's elements and it's the theme author who chooses the engine and uses it in the theme files. Asking to choose an engine for Cinnamon makes no sense.

[terdon]

Engines are not enough. You must also install relevant themes, like "cinnamon-themes", so you should have at least Mint-X and Mint-Z themes. Most gtk2-only engines/themes are useless since Cinnamon uses gtk3 ones. There are many additional gtk2/3 themes available from Noobslab and Webupd8 PPAs.

Thanks, but the themes are installed:

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$ dpkg -l | grep cinnamon-themes
ii  cinnamon-themes                                             2013.05.09                      all          Cinnamon themes

The issue seems to be GTK3 specific but I can't figure out why the engine choice is being ignored.

[terdon]

That's Mint-X theme. Choose that theme in the settings and get what you want.

As I said in my OP, changing any of the "Controls" options has no effect whatsoever.

I don't know who told you about these engines, but that person surely led you astray by telling you either not enough or too much. Engines are not used by Cinnamon or any other desktop environment; they are used by the themes. An engine is used for drawing theme's elements and it's the theme author who chooses the engine and uses it in the theme files. Asking to choose an engine for Cinnamon makes no sense.

As for changing engines, I have always (under Gnome2 and Cinnamon < 2.0) been able to change the appearance of the GUI widgets (menus, scrollbars etc) by changing the theme engine used. Yes, the engine is chosen by the theme's author but the user has always been free to change it. This is also confirmed by the fact that it works for GTK2 apps.

[eanfrid]

At least this package is too old. Should read:

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$ dpkg -l | grep cinnamon-themes
ii  cinnamon-themes                                             2013.11.25                      all          Cinnamon themes

Looks like you performed a partial Cinnamon upgrade.

[terdon]

At least this package is too old. Should read:

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$ dpkg -l | grep cinnamon-themes
ii  cinnamon-themes                                             2013.11.25                      all          Cinnamon themes

Looks like you performed a partial Cinnamon upgrade.

Thanks, I'm on LMDE, not Mint so I've been using a local repository to upgrade as described here. Not sure why the cinnamon-themes package was not taken from there but I have now upgraded it from my local copy of the repo and it looks like this:

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$ dpkg -l | grep cinnamon-themes
ii  cinnamon-themes                                             2013.11.25+git20131218aaa       all          Cinnamon themes

Still the same problem though.

[eanfrid]

So still a partial and experimental upgrade. Cinnamon 2.x will only be officially included in LMDE with the UP8 in a few weeks. Until then, expect a broken install.

[terdon]

So still a partial and experimental upgrade. Cinnamon 2.x will only be officially included in LMDE with the UP8 in a few weeks. Until then, expect a broken install.

Well, yes, I know. However, I am an experienced user and have been using Linux professionally and at home for almost 15 years now so I figured I should be able to sort this out. I am not complaining here, nor am I blaming Clem or the Mint Devs. I chose to venture into uncharted territory so all responsibility lies with me

Anyway, I finally managed to fix it, enafrid was quite right (thanks!) and I needed to upgrade some packages. In case anyone else has similar issues, this is the whole proceedure:

1. Install Cinnamon 2.0.14 using Jubei-Mitsuyoshi's repository as described here. I then installed cinnamon using apt-get normally and ran into the issues described in my OP.

2. To fix, point your sources.list to the debian sid repositories and run

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sudo apt-get install gtk3-engines-*

3. The above enabled me to fix my gtk3 themes. In the process I also discovered two cool little apps that help tweak your desktop:

sudo apt-get install lxappearance gtk-chtheme