CDE/Motif Theme with Front panel app from the CDE desktop for use with Xfce4. Tested on current
Debian sid/stable, MX, Suse leap, Xubuntu and Mint and... don't remember.
The GTK etc theme should also work without Xfce. New features:
NOTE: There is a small bug when creating a new color scheme. Please edit ~/.config/CdePanel/config
The first line should be 'currentpalettefile: Broica.dp' or similar. Will address this asap
*Added a small script as a workaround for bug on Open Suse
*Panel autoraises when mouse hits bottom of screen
*Adjust volume with mousewheel when hovering over pavucontrol icon in panel *
*Icons in app are dithered and get a cde-style bevel, icons in the panel also appear greyed
Unpack and run ./startpanel to install. Also run same executable next time to start.
If you experience any problems, let me know below. Like comment subscribe.
See also https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8h0kNQZi1eM for more elaborate description
--------------------------------------------------------------
' HELP/README
Cdetheme 1.4.2 - 11 December 2022
Cde front panel and gtk/qt/xfce theme. Mainly meant to use with
xfce4. Logged in to an xfce session, run
./startpanel
to install the theme and start the front panel.
The cdepanel and gtk/qt themes all use older python and pyqt
versions so they won't run on most current systems. Needs a
rewrite, but for now I packaged everything in a pyinstaller
executable. This creates its own environment, with the old
dependencies installed inside. I tested it on the current Linux
Mint, MX, Debian stable and sid, Suse Leap, Fedora, Xubuntu and
Sparky, all with Xfce installed.
The scripts do rely on some external helper programs, most are
already installed on the average distribution with xfce. These
ones you also need:
imagemagick, gtk2 pixmap engine, qt5ct, qt5 gtk2 platform theme,
qt5 style plugins, gtk-launch, orage, ... and what not
Everything still needs work, but yes I thought just put out this
one that works on the newer distributions...
USAGE:
Configuration of the cdepanel app can mostly be done by right
click on the panel. Different options will be shown when clicking
on a launcher (icon), drawer, or side handle.
Apps can be added to the panel and drawers using drag and drop.
One can drag icons over from the xfce4-appfinder or whisker menu
to the panel or open drawer. But one can also drag icons from an
open drawer to the panel or vice versa, or from one position in
the panel to another.
Colors, backdrops and window borders can be changed in the
'Settings' dialog (right-click panel). More advanced settings can
be made by editing the config file (see 'Advanced' tab in the
settings dialog). Edit at your own risk!
Keys and mouse on panel:
mousewheel: Switch workspace
=/-, ctrl-mousewheel: Larger/smaller size
h/H, shift-mousewheel: More/less sharpness
p/P: Cycle back/forth through color palettes
s/S: More/less saturated colors in panel
c: Pop up config dialog
r: Save layout (after moving buttons etc)
n: Toggle between 4 and 8 colors mode
esc: Close all drawers
ctrl-c: Exit program
ctrl-r: Restart
0: Resize panel to unscaled size
Mousewheel over pavucontrol icon: change speaker volume.
Mouse at bottom of the screen raises the panel window above all
others.
ADDITIONAL:
If you want to get rid of the new client side decorations windows
and draw normal Motif style window decorations always, please
sudo apt install gtk3-nocsd
and set
export GTK_CSD=0
export LD_PRELOAD=<"full path" of your libgtk3-nocsd.so.0 file>
in your .bashrc. I'm looking for a better solution for this,
but yes...
---------------------------------
Older info:
Gtk2 / Gtk3 theme mimicking CDE / Motif and Front panel app
'An elegant desktop, from a more... civilzed age.'
Latest version 1.3 : Now includes configurable XFCE window decorations. Title height and border width can be set in pixels, and the images necessary for xfwm making up the border and window buttons will be generated from that. Also the panel app and gtk/xfce theme are now combined into a single package
Unpack, and run 'cdepanel'. (Maybe do chmod u+x cdepanel first.)
Tested on Xubuntu 17.10.
To generate theme files without using the panel app, use the 'switchtheme' script.
CDE= Common Desktop Environment was (is) a colorful desktop from the '90s with a very distinct flat / boxy look.
Comes with about 40 original CDE color schemes. Script generates the gtk.css etc files. Includes the purplish 'Solaris' found in many 'cde themes' (the palette Crimson.dp) and a color scheme used on HPUnix (at least on the Hp9000 I used).
Includes theme for Xfce window decorations ala CDE/Motif
README FILE ########################################################################
CDEPANEL AND CDETHEME 1.3 / JOS@JOSVANRISWICK.COM
CDE front panel emulation with gtk and xfce theme
###################################################################################
HOW TO TEST:
Make fresh a live usb of xubuntu 17.10 and run the binary 'cdepanel'
(you may need to do 'chmod u+x cdepanel')
Use gtk/xfce theme *without* the panel app with the 'switchtheme' script, eg:
./switchtheme ../palettes/Broica.dp 8 5 18 true true true
###################################################################################
NEWS:
In this 1.3 version I added configurable XFCE window decorations. Title height
and border width can be set in pixels, and the images for borders and window
buttons will be generated from that.
Directories and are now organized a bit different. See 'TWEAK' below.
###################################################################################
REQUIREMENTS:
1) linux
2) a /tmp directory
3) python2.7
4) imagemagick convert
5) gtk2 pixmap engine
6) python and PyQt4
7) Prefarably, use XFCE4 !
It was tested on xubuntu 17.10. On ubuntu,
python and imagemagick should come installed. But if not, do:
sudo apt install imagemagick python gtk2-engines python-qt4 gtk2-engines-pixbuf
###################################################################################
INSTALLATION:
A) CDE Panel app
1) extract the zip to some place you can access
2) copy 'cdepanel' to your path, or just run it from there
(maybe you need to make it executable, do: 'chmod u+x cdepanel')
If you are using xfce4 the script will set a different CDE
backdrop to every workspace. However, not all versions of xfce4 allow
setting the backdrop from a script. So you may need to go into
SETTINGS/DESKTOP and uncheck 'Apply to all workspaces'.
The Gtk2/3 theme uses images (arrows and such). Gtk3 doesnt always display
these sharply, depending on the dpi setting or font size. If some elemens
in apps appear blurred, try modifying your custom dpi setting or font
size. (XFCE SETTINGS/APPEARANCE/FONTS)
If the 'cdepanel' binary doesnt work on your system, you need to TWEAK (see below)
B) Gtk/xfce theme *without* cde panel app
1) copy 'cdetheme' directory to ~/.themes
2) Go into xfce/settings/ appearance and window manager to pick 'cdetheme'
(or similar app in other environments)
3) use the 'switchtheme' script for picking a new color palette or set the
window height/border width
###################################################################################
USAGE:
Configuration of the cdepanel app can mostly be done by right click on the panel.
Apps can be added to the panel and drawers using drag and drop.
Keys and mouse:
mousewheel: switch workspace
=/- or ctrl-mousewheel: change size
h/H or shift-mousewheel: change sharpness/antialiasing
p/P: quick palette switch
s/S: tweak displayed saturation
c: pop up config dialog
###################################################################################
TWEAK
The file 'cdepanel' is a pyinstaller executable containing almost all
dependencies. So running that has the greatest chance of just working. The
cdepanel script will try to make an initial configuration based on what it
finds on your system. If you want to manually tweak or modify/improve the
configuration or scripts, here are some pointers:
cdetheme/: directory containting the gtk/xfce theme files, should be copied to
~/.themes A link to this directory called cdetheme1 will be created to be able
to quickly switch and affect changes when the theme has been modified
cdetheme/scripts: directory with all the python scripts
scripts/cdepanel.py: the source file of the main app. If the binary 'cdepanel'
doesnt work, try to run this one.
scripts/switchtheme: script for setting the theme (gtk/xfce), without using the
panel app
scripts/CdePanel/: the configuration directory for cdepanel. On initial run,
this is copied to your ~/.config directory.
CdePanel/layout: file that determines what is shown on the panel
CdePanel/config: some configuration options
CdePanel/cache: icon cache. If your icons look funny, empty this dir
CdePanel/drawers: contains drawer files (the arrow things that pop up a list of
apps). On inital run, a set of default drawers is created.
###################################################################################
PYHON DEPENDENCIES
If you want to use the python modules instead of the 'binary' please install
the following dependencies:
sudo apt install python-dev build-essential python-sip-dev python-sip-dev libpythonqt-dev libqt4-dev libqt4-dev libqt4-dev python-qt4-dev python-qt4 python-yaml python-xdg python-pil python-pip
sudo pip install ewmh
sudo pip install colors.py
sudo pip install pyinstaller
###################################################################################
QT THEME
Hmm in xubuntu 17.10 the gtk style now doesnt seem to be applied to QT apps. To do this install
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mati75/qt5ct
sudo apt install qt5ct
sudo apt install qt5-style-plugins
and in .bashrc set
QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME=qt5ct
export QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME=qt5ct
(one of the 2)
start qt5ct and pick 'gtk+'
So yes.. I hope you can get it to work !
Ratings & Comments
115 Comments
10 finally the very missing motif theme for gtk! thank you a lot!
4 Probando el tema
Please do, and let me know if it works !
love using this theme, however after some time the panel stopped working. now whenever i try to use either startpanel or cdepanel, i get an index error in the cdpanel.py script. newish to linux, and no experience with python, so i have had to use the regular xfce panels
hi Bonzijuse, thnx I'm glad to hear you like the theme. Yes, I think there is a bug that happens when you try to create a new color palette, maybe that is what happened. Please try to remove the folders ~/.themes/cdetheme ~/.themes/cdetheme1 and ~/.config/CdePanel and run startpanel again, so that you have a fresh start. Hopefully it will work again then. I hope to get around to work on this theme again .. some day, and fix the bug. If it doesnt work: what system are you using (distro/version), maybe I can try and reproduce the but... thnx
thanks, working perfectly now!
Great, ah then I probably know where culprit lies.. thnx
another thing now, i changed my display settings so my portait oriented monitor is mostly centered next to my horixontal screen, and now the panel is in the center of my primary monitor (thr horizontal one). lookied in config and didnt see anything to adjust this.
hi! hmm I'm not sure I'm getting it exactly. You mean the panel is lets say, floating in the middle? If that is the case, please right-click on the left or right 'handle' of the panel and select 'reposition'. Or just hit '-' or ' ' when the mouse is on the panel. Then the panel shrinks/grows 1 pixel, and it also re-centers
none of those moved it, just changed the size and kept it in the middle. the panel will move as i move the vertical screen more 'down'
reinstalling the theme also didn't fix this, it seems like its tied to the position of my second monitor
hi Bonzijuse, hmm it sounds as if you are using a virtual screen that is larger than the actual size of the physical screen? It's difficult to explain the exact situation. But it sounds as if the panel is sitting in the bottom of one virtual screen, and the physical screen is panning over the edge to another screen, if that makes sense. I m not sure how to fix this right now, other than to play around with how xrandr configures your screens...
I mean and then see to it that both virtual screens share the bottom edge. Then the panel will surely sit at one of either screen's bottom edges.
i think i found the problem but im still not sure how to fix it, the panel is trying to fit my landscape monitor, but for some reason thinks the top of my second, portrait monitor is the height of the landscape one. the reposition button doesnt seem to work for me and i couldnt find anything in the config file.
running debian bookworm with xfce4 and python 3.11.2
maybe you can try setting the other one primary..
after trying that, the panel now is in the very bottom left corner of my landscape monitor, which now is not my primary monitor, the reposition button moves the panel down where i can only see the drawer buttons
aha ok bummer. hmm can you quote the xrandr command(s) you use to set up your monitors here, maybe I can figure it out like that. (Happy to hear it still kind of works on debian 12 :) Thnx
xrandr gave me this, my landscape monitor (dp) is currently the primary display. Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 3000 x 1920, maximum 16384 x 16384 DisplayPort-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) DisplayPort-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) DisplayPort-2 connected primary 1920x1080 0 554 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 527mm x 296mm 1920x1080 60.00* 50.00 59.94 24.00 23.98 1680x1050 59.88 1600x900 60.00 1280x1024 75.02 60.02 1440x900 59.90 1280x960 60.00 1280x800 59.91 1152x864 75.00 1280x720 100.00 60.00 50.00 59.94 1024x768 75.03 70.07 60.00 1440x480 60.00 59.94 832x624 74.55 800x600 72.19 75.00 60.32 56.25 720x480 60.00 59.94 640x480 75.00 72.81 66.67 60.00 59.94 720x400 87.85 70.08 HDMI-A-0 connected 1080x1920 1920 0 left (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 527mm x 296mm 1920x1080 60.00* 180.00 165.00 144.00 120.00 100.00 119.88 50.00 59.94 24.00 23.98 3840x2160 60.00 59.94 1680x1050 59.88 1600x900 60.00 1280x1024 75.02 60.02 1440x900 59.90 1280x960 60.00 1280x800 59.91 1152x864 75.00 1280x720 100.00 60.00 50.00 59.94 1024x768 75.03 70.07 60.00 1440x480 60.00 59.94 832x624 74.55 800x600 72.19 75.00 60.32 56.25 720x480 60.00 59.94 640x480 75.00 72.81 66.67 60.00 59.94 720x400 87.85 70.08 DVI-D-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
also would like to move the panel over to the bottom of my portrait monitor (hdmi) without having to set that one as primary, just an idea if you decide to update this project again :)
and have you been able to make it work in the meantime? I've been very busy with other stuff, sorry. Hope to dive into it some time again..
hi binzijuse, sorry for the delayed reply. I meant: usually one issues some xrandr command to set up the monitors, eg xrandr --left-of bla etc. Do you use a command like that, or do you use a gui? If you use a script or command, please quote it, so I can reproduce your setup... thnx!
so after reinstalling debian, i can now move the cde panel if i right click the item in the xfce panel and use the move option, and it stays there until i manually restart the cde panel. if i reset it redraws in the middle of the screen again, but it doesnt lock. i didnt use xrandr to set up my monitors but i did use the display settings gui which i think is just a frontend for xrandr
10 I used to work on Sparc workstations many many moons ago. Once I got this running on Debian Bullseye - the nostalgia and overwhelming feeling of comfort was incredible. Thanks you for all your fantastic work - this should be an included theme for the default install of XFCE4.