[Solved] System Monitor background black

[pastim]

I'm on Mint Debian, 32 bit, xfce. This has the latest (large set of) updates, version 5 (however Update Manager now keeps freezing when I ask it to update the pack info).

My problem is that the x and y axes on the System Monitor are completely black, so the scales cannot be seen. This is new with this update. The rest of the screen is fine, including the graphs.

Any ideas? I don't know if it's a feature in System Monitor, a windows management issue, or ....? I tried reinstalling System Monitor with Synaptic - no change.

[auwally]

Pastim

I'm on Mint Debian 64 bit, xfce and have exact issue. Hopefully someone can help!

[pastim]

I found that I could get the axes to show by changing the appearance under Settings, Appearance, Style tab. Some work, some don't. You can leave the System Monitor open whilst trying different styles.

It's not ideal, and I think there must be a fault somewhere, but it suffices for now.

[auwally]

Thanks - will see what happens

[pastim]

I've reported a fault, but suspect it may not be attended to unless enough people have a similar issue.

I tried running Linux Mint Debian 12.04 straight from DVD, and this problem did not arise, so it is new in update 5.

[Tyro]

I found that I could get the axes to show by changing the appearance under Settings, Appearance, Style tab. Some work, some don't. You can leave the System Monitor open whilst trying different styles. It's not ideal, and I think there must be a fault somewhere, but it suffices for now.

Thanks.

What I found (LMDE Pack 5, Mate) was at first the black borders had no writing that could be seen but after trying Adwaita (which took the graphs to full size with axis numbering) then retrying Glider the black borders came back and the graphs shrunk but this time there are dark gray scales.

In mate its
System / Preferences / Appearance / Theme tab
Or
right click desktop / Change Desktop Background / Theme tab

[pastim]

What I found (LMDE Pack 5, Mate) was at first the black borders had no writing that could be seen but after trying Adwaita (which took the graphs to full size with axis numbering) then retrying Glider the black borders came back and the graphs shrunk but this time there are dark gray scales.

This trick doesn't work for me under xfce (which refers to styles rather than themes under Appearance). I can switch all I like but only a very few work properly.

I'm mildly surprised that there are so few reports of this, and the bug report I filed is still 'undecided'. I can only assume that either very few use this distro plus system monitor, or it is dependent on some other software or hardware feature.

Having done the update automatically (using the update manager) I later discovered that if you do it manually there are some instructions which include not overwriting various conf files etc. However, other than this specific problem my ancient laptop is running very nicely with this set-up.

[zerozero]

pastim,
1- are you using system monitor (the gnome app) or task manager (the xfce app)?
2- it all looks like a theming issue: do you have mint-themes installed and mint-x-theme uninstalled?

[pastim]

pastim,
1- are you using system monitor (the gnome app) or task manager (the xfce app)?
2- it all looks like a theming issue: do you have mint-themes installed and mint-x-theme uninstalled?

1- I am using System Monitor. I wasn't aware of the existence of task manager.

2- Under Settings, Appearance, xfce seems to have 'styles', rather than 'themes' - are this just different words for the same thing?
- I did a standard installation, no questions were asked about what I'd like to install.
- Synaptic reports mint-x-theme is not installed. mint-themes and mint-x-icons are installed.
- in Styles there is a Mint-X style

[zerozero]

Synaptic reports mint-x-theme is not installed. mint-themes and mint-x-icons are installed.

that's the correct choice: mint-x-theme was deprecated by mint-themes with UP5 (this last one has support for gtk3.4)

in Styles there is a Mint-X style

it's just a different way to get to the same place

settings > settings manager gets you to the option on the left
settings > appearance to the option on the right
if you select mint-x the problem still persists?

[pastim]

if you select mint-x the problem still persists?

mint-x and Adwaita are two of the styles that work properly. Most don't.

Having spent more time switching between styles, and under different light, some of the themes with black axes do have extremely faint grey lettering on them, but it is so faint I have only just seen it.

[zerozero]

mint-x and Adwaita are two of the styles that work properly. Most don't.

good, at least means that nothing is broken in your system explaining: system monitor is gtk3.4 so needs a theme with proper gtk3.4 support (the new mint-x and adwaita have it), the other themes that you have installed (and that don't work properly) are either only gtk2 or gtk3.2 (like 5-6 months old themes)
if those themes are fine for you cool, if you want something else, here ya go (almost all should be 3.4 compatible and should work with no problems in xfce)
http://gnome-look.org/index.php?xconten ... 8887b37ff7

[pastim]

mint-x and Adwaita are two of the styles that work properly. Most don't.

good, at least means that nothing is broken in your system explaining: system monitor is gtk3.4 so needs a theme with proper gtk3.4 support (the new mint-x and adwaita have it), the other themes that you have installed (and that don't work properly) are either only gtk2 or gtk3.2 (like 5-6 months old themes)
if those themes are fine for you cool, if you want something else, here ya go (almost all should be 3.4 compatible and should work with no problems in xfce)
http://gnome-look.org/index.php?xconten ... 8887b37ff7

Well, well. Thanks a lot. A whole new plane of my ignorance opens up before me. I shall try some of these. If they work then I'll mark this topic solved and also close off the bug report I posted.

Does any of this also explain why the pretty welcome screen I used to get before completely reloading mint xfxe from the 2012.04 release + update 5 no longer appears? It used to be full-screen with the mint symbol, and quite good looking. I now get a rather boring small screen to log on to, which seems to be the same as running direct from DVD.

[pastim]

if those themes are fine for you cool, if you want something else, here ya go (almost all should be 3.4 compatible and should work with no problems in xfce)
http://gnome-look.org/index.php?xconten ... 8887b37ff7

Can you give me any clue as to where to start to look to find instructions as to what to do with the themes? The gnome-look website appears to be for people who already understand such things and want to develop new themes. I'm a tad nervous about just dumping the files somewhere and hoping they will work without breaking something. I can find threads on linux mint, but not for the debian/xfce variant.

[zerozero]

not a problem
it takes more time explaining than actually doing it, so don't be scared it's really an easy process
let's go to gnome.look and sort the search by highest rate
http://gnome-look.org/index.php?xsortmo ... ntmode=167
the first option is zukitwo, let's go to that page (we just have to click the image)
http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php/ ... ent=140562
bellow the description and changelog you have a download button; this will d/l a zip file into your downloads folder
double-click it and squeeze will open offering to extract it (you can extract it to the same forder)
you'll have now a 140562-Zukitwo folder; open it and you have 3 folders, one GZ archive and 4 files: we are only going to use now the 2 first folders Zukitwo and Zukitwo-dark

open a new instance of thunar and find the .themes folder in your home directory (it's a hidden folder mind the dot before the name)

copy&paste zukitwo and zukitwo-dark folders from the existing location to .themes

now open settings>appearence and settings>window manager and select the new zukitwo or zukitwo-dark
the same desktop i had before now looks like this


the same will apply to almost any theme

[zerozero]

Does any of this also explain why the pretty welcome screen I used to get before completely reloading mint xfxe from the 2012.04 release + update 5 no longer appears? It used to be full-screen with the mint symbol, and quite good looking. I now get a rather boring small screen to log on to, which seems to be the same as running direct from DVD.

this here i'm afraid i can't see what the problem is, maybe if you could get us a picture to help visualize the question

[pastim]

not a problem
...it takes more time explaining than actually doing it, so don't be scared it's really an easy process....

Thanks very much. I was tempted to try doing just what you suggest but somehow imagined there is more to it. Clearly there isn't.

I have tried a couple and they both work fine, so your conclusion is clearly correct. I shall close off this thread and the bug report accordingly.

I'd like to comment that I am continually surprised and impressed by the help we get on these forums. Linux may have its wrinkles, but solutions are, more often than not, close to hand with the help of people such as yourself.

[pastim]

DSCN0168b.jpg (16.79 KiB) Viewed 603 times

Does any of this also explain why the pretty welcome screen I used to get before completely reloading mint xfxe from the 2012.04 release + update 5 no longer appears? It used to be full-screen with the mint symbol, and quite good looking. I now get a rather boring small screen to log on to, which seems to be the same as running direct from DVD.

this here i'm afraid i can't see what the problem is, maybe if you could get us a picture to help visualize the question

I have attempted to attach a photo (I couldn't get a screen capture at login stage). Is this the normal login screen?

[zerozero]

Is this the normal login screen?

since the 2012.04 respins that is the standard login screen (see the highlights here>http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=1979) and it's also standard in the main ed (see>http://linuxmint.com/rel_maya_whatsnew.php)
as everything else it's adjustable to your likings (see > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9JKouRAQxA)

[pastim]

since the 2012.04 respins that is the standard login screen (see the highlights here>http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=1979) and it's also standard in the main ed (see>http://linuxmint.com/rel_maya_whatsnew.php)
as everything else it's adjustable to your likings (see > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9JKouRAQxA)

OK - thanks.