Cinnamon 3.8.x and later - Mint 19.x and 20.x Additional Window Borders / Metacity Themes

[smurphos]

Just installed or upgraded to Mint 19 Cinnamon and wondering where all the Window Border theming options have gone? Missing your Ageing Gorilla, Crux, Esco etc...?

Never fear https://github.com/smurphos/Window_Borders_Mint_19 contains the full set of 'missing' Window Border themes. Where necessary they have been updated to metacity-theme-3.xml formats to display correctly in the Cinnamon 3.8.x Themes module. Display issues have been fixed and compatibility for displaying colours from GTK3.22 themes has been improved.

The theme pack also includes several bonus themes

Mint-Y-BB & Mint-Y-Dark-BB (Big-Buttoned) variations - these have buttons 50% larger than the stock Mint-Y window borders themes.

Mint-Y-VBB & Mint-Y-Dark-VBB (Very-Big-Buttoned) variations - these have buttons 100% larger than the stock Mint-Y window borders themes.

Crux-Left - this is a Crux variant intended for users who set their titlebar button layout to left.

Cinnamox-Colours - a generic window border theme ported from the Cinnamox themes and adjusted to use the GTK theme's selected colour for the active window titlebar.

Installation

Open a terminal (Ctrl-Alt-T) and enter the following commands

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cd /tmp

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wget https://github.com/smurphos/Window_Borders_Mint_19/releases/download/v.0.8/metacity_for_mint19_cinn.zip

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unzip -o metacity_for_mint19_cinn.zip -d ~/.themes

Open the Themes app and the new Window Border's themes should be available for selection.

Included..











Bonus Themes








Tweaking

Cinnamox-Colours also supports end-user resizing of it's buttons and includes a small terminal based utility to switch between button-sizes.

To use the utility for the first time after installation open a terminal (Ctrl-Alt-T) and run

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chmod +x ~/.themes/Cinnamox-Colours/scripts/cinnamox_titlebar_button_size.sh && ~/.themes/Cinnamox-Colours/scripts/cinnamox_titlebar_button_size.sh

To run the utility again just run

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~/.themes/Cinnamox-Colours/scripts/cinnamox_titlebar_button_size.sh

Changelog:

5/7/18 - v.0.1 - Initial port of version 1 and 2 themes to version 3

6/7/18 - v.0.2 - Fixed version 1 and 2 themes to support Mate properly

12/7/18 -v.0.3 - Removed all version 1 and 2 themes. Improvements to version 3 themes to improve compatibility for displaying colours from active GTK3.22 theme.

16/7/18 - v.0.4 - Added bonus themes Mint-Y-BB and Mint=Y-Dark-BB. BB stands for Big-Buttoned...

21/10/18- v,0.5 - Added Crux-with-icons. Added thumbnail.png to all themes in case the thumbnails aren't pre-installed.

5/11/18 - v.0.6 - HighContrast - Fixed inner button prelight and pressed background colors.

8/2/19 - v.0.7 - HighContrast - show buttons on regular dialogs.

30/5/20 -v.0.8 - Retired Crux with Icons. Added Crux-Left for users who change the button layout to Left. Added VBB (Very Big Buttoned) variations of Mint-Y and Mint-Y-Dark. Added Cinnamox-Colours. All themes have an index.theme so can be selected in MATE.

[JosephM]

Cool. I haven't looked at these but just so you know, marco in mate does not support v3 of metacity. Only up to 2.

[smurphos]

Thanks, I left the original version 1 or 2 xml files intact. Having just checked their rendering in Mate some of them do have the same display issues in Mate 19 that I fixed in the version 3 xml. I'll apply the same fixes to the version 1 or 2 xml so they are good for both Mate and Cinnamon.

Edit to add - all done - download instruction in 1st post updated.

[Mage of Maple]

Thank you!!!

I was holding off upgrading because these weren't available. The appearance of my desktop is important to me and I'm just not into this modern plain, flat look.

This has mostly worked, but I'm having an issue with Metabox. The styling is exactly right, but the color of the title bars is always grey. It used to use the color of either the icon theme or button theme (not sure which) for the foreground window, but the background windows were all grey. Now all title bars are grey. I've tried switching back and forth between colors and themes and rebooting, etc, but to no avail. (Even in Mint 18, you would sometimes need to reboot before a change to the colors would show up.)

I should also mention that I experience this on both a clean install and an upgrade from 18.3.

Thanks for your hard work keeping these themes alive!

[smurphos]

Hi,

No worries - you are welcome.

The colour changing should draw the selected_bg_color from the GTK theme (i.e. the controls theme). It doesn't work with the Mint 19 versions of Mint-X and Mint-Y.

It does work with other GTK themes I've tested include any of the Cinnamox themes from Cinnamon Spices, light-themes (Ambiance and Radiance) installable via Software Manager, mate-themes (various themes) installable via Software Manager.

It doesn't work on a few others - e.g Adapta or Arc installed from software manager.

Right now I'm not sure what actually causes the difference and if it can be fixed to work with Mint-X and Y without breaking it for other themes but I'm investigating!

Edit - OK, I can get to work with Mint-Y without breaking the existing compatibility, but not Mint-X...will post again once updated and uploaded.

Another edit - now OK with Mint X + Y without breaking existing compatibility....

[smurphos]

This has mostly worked, but I'm having an issue with Metabox. The styling is exactly right, but the color of the title bars is always grey. It used to use the color of either the icon theme or button theme (not sure which) for the foreground window, but the background windows were all grey. Now all title bars are grey. I've tried switching back and forth between colors and themes and rebooting, etc, but to no avail. (Even in Mint 18, you would sometimes need to reboot before a change to the colors would show up.)

Hi,

This is all fixed now - all of the themes designed to draw colors from the active GTK theme now work across the board. Tested with Mint X, Mint Y and various third party themes. Compatibility is actually better than previously - in 18.x they didn't work properly with Mint-Y....

In the process, though I decided to remove the version 1 and 2 xml files entirely so this download no longer supports Mate.

Install instructions in 1st post updated.

[Mage of Maple]

Awesome. Thanks again, Smurphos!

Now that these work flawlessly, let's hope they get included in the distro again. As discussed in another thread, many people are underwhelmed by the default themes. It's a shock to upgrade and find the themes you've grown accustom to gone. And if people are checking out Mint for the first time and don't like the way it looks (and many won't) they probably won't find these.

Cheers,
Greg

[JosephM]

I haven't tried these, but nice job smurphos. Obviously some users appreciate you doing this.

Now that these work flawlessly, let's hope they get included in the distro again

The original versions are still shipped with the distro. They just don't show in Cinnamon chooser for window borders. Mint also doesn't develop or maintain the originals. If I'm not mistaken these new ones don't support versions of metacity older than v3. That means they don't work under Mate. So it might seem better for Cinnamon user but certainly not for Mate users

Moving forward the ability to choose separate window border and control themes may die in Cinnamon completely. Support for the metacity format requires a lot of code in muffin. It also has some limitations with HiDPI. They don't affect all windows either. Try opening something like calculator and you'll see it uses a window border styled by the controls theme. This is the source of a lot issues/reports on our side.

[Mage of Maple]

The original versions are still shipped with the distro. They just don't show in Cinnamon chooser for window borders. Mint also doesn't develop or maintain the originals. If I'm not mistaken these new ones don't support versions of metacity older than v3. That means they don't work under Mate. So it might seem better for Cinnamon user but certainly not for Mate users

Yes, but if you include the metacity-theme-3.xml files smurphos developed, then they will show up and work in Cinnamon and won't even show up in Mate, so the users won't see broken options. Isn't having the extra options in Cinnamon worthwhile even if they are not also available in Mate?

Moving forward the ability to choose separate window border and control themes may die in Cinnamon completely. Support for the metacity format requires a lot of code in muffin. It also has some limitations with HiDPI. They don't affect all windows either. Try opening something like calculator and you'll see it uses a window border styled by the controls theme. This is the source of a lot issues/reports on our side.

This would make me sad, but I certainly understand. Although I don't really understand the details, I've read several threads on this and gather that metacity themeing is something of a mess. I have noticed that, as you mentioned, some windows don't honor them but it seems to work right for 98% of them so that's good enough for me I guess it could generate support questions, though. Unfortunately, the users need to understand that Linux Land is a complex ecosystem with tons of disparate components that don't always work together 100%. People will install some KDE apps, for example, and they aren't going to look identical either.

I guess I'm wondering where we go next. If window borders styles can't be selected separately, would it still be possible to create custom control themes that also change the window borders? One of the things I love about Linux is that I can personalize my desktop into something that looks great to me.

In any event, I greatly appreciate the work you all do to produce such a terrific polished product! And, since Mint 19 will be supported for another 5 years, I guess it's not something I will have to worry about for a while!

[JosephM]

I have noticed that, as you mentioned, some windows don't honor them but it seems to work right for 98% of them so that's good enough for me I guess it could generate support questions, though.

It's 98% for you but it depends on the user. A lot of apps are going that way. It boils down to the fact that people expect it to "just work" and it doesn't. While linux is made up of a lot of pieces, we can still try to make that not so apparent to the everyday user

[Arch_Enemy]

Just installed or upgraded to Mint 19 Cinnamon and wondering where all the Window Border theming options have gone? Missing your Ageing Gorilla, Crux, Esco etc...?

Never fear this github repo contains the full set of 'missing' Window Border themes. Where necessary they have been modified to include a metacity-theme-3.xml file to display correctly in the Cinnamon 3.8.x Themes module, and obvious display issues have been fixed.

Bookmarked for another time when it's not "Cocktail Hour"!

[smurphos]

I've just added modified versions of the Mint-Y and Mint-Y-Dark Window borders. Both have buttons 50% larger than the default so are Mint-Y-BB and Mint-Y-Dark-BB. BB=Big-Buttoned Download instructions in 1st post updated.

[unkilbeeg]

Is there a way to add these in globally and not just in a per-user way? They work perfectly if installed as instructed, but just for that one user.

Could I just unzip them in the /usr/share/themes directory, or would that break what's already there?

[smurphos]

Is there a way to add these in globally and not just in a per-user way? They work perfectly if installed as instructed, but just for that one user.

Could I just unzip them in the /usr/share/themes directory, or would that break what's already there?

In Nemo as root, do a copy and paste, or move into /usr/share/themes - when you get a warning about file conflicts - select merge. It won't break anything existing if you do it that way (Adwaita and HighContrast have folders in there).

[LanceM]

Thank you very much. I really like Esco with Jade-1 for Controls

[tmf2]

I really like the looks of Ravefinity Ambiance and Radiance Themes and Controls. On 18.3 they look great on 19 the file,Edit, View, Go, etc wont render properly. Any way to make them work??

Screenshot from 2018-09-09 08-41-05.png

Thanks

[smurphos]

apt install light-themes to install Gtk 3.22 compatible versions of Ambiance and Radiance. You'll probably need to remove the RaveInfinity versions.

[tmf2]

Thanks...I'll search for the files needed and see if that that will resolve the issue and get back with results.

Thanks Again your work is very much appreciated !

[tmf2]

Unfortunately no go, those versions didn't replicate the look I wanted which I preferred with the Ravefinity versions.
I will stay with 18.3 while getting familiar with KDE.... hate leaving Mint after all these years but being able to customize
my desktop to my liking is important to me. Thanks

[tmf2]

Unfortunately no go, those versions didn't replicate the look I wanted which I preferred with the Ravefinity versions.
I will stay with 18.3 while getting familiar with KDE.... hate leaving Mint after all these years but being able to customize
my desktop to my liking is important to me. Thanks

Forgot to mention having the ability to edit the themes and controls in Mint likeyou can in KDE Plasma would be a really big plus for this distro.