`$ gsettings set .. ` commands have no effect

[enoren5]

Greetings @EliverLara!

At some point several months ago, the Noric Polar themes stopped working but only on some GTK apps. Another GitHub user initially reported this in #35 however that report wasn't very detailed. Here is my renewed effort at documenting the issue.

Below is a screenshot demonstrating Nautilus and Gnome Settings with default Gnome appearance and other apps like Gnome-System-Monitor and Gnome-Terminal.

In the screenshot below in my terminal in the bottom left corner, take note of a few things:

• I am inside the ~/.themes/Nordic-Polar directory,

• I've pulled the latest updates from master; and finally

• you can see me running:

  $ gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface gtk-theme "Nordic-Polar"
  $ gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.preferences theme "Nordic-Polar"
  

I recently freshly reformatted to the latest stable Manjaro release. I'm running Gnome Shell v44.1 but it was still present in v43.x. The issue persists on both Xorg and Wayland.

Any idea how to get all apps to consistent theme properly with Nordic Polar?

Here is all my Manjaro system information:

$ inxi -Fazy
System:
  Kernel: 6.3.5-2-MANJARO arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 13.1.1
    parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-6.3-x86_64
    root=UUID=d8f51c21-a5ce-4611-973c-b7d694ae22a1 rw quiet splash apparmor=1
    security=apparmor resume=UUID=6a544b3a-7b7d-4fc0-b121-0f55042fc081
    udev.log_priority=3
  Desktop: GNOME v: 44.1 tk: GTK v: 3.24.37 wm: gnome-shell dm: LightDM
    v: 1.32.0 Distro: Manjaro Linux base: Arch Linux
Machine:
  Type: Desktop System: ASUS product: N/A v: N/A serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: ASUSTeK model: PRIME H670-PLUS D4 v: Rev 1.xx
    serial: <superuser required> UEFI: American Megatrends v: 2014
    date: 10/14/2022
CPU:
  Info: model: 13th Gen Intel Core i5-13600K bits: 64 type: MST AMCP
    arch: Raptor Lake gen: core 13 level: v3 note: check built: 2022+
    process: Intel 7 (10nm) family: 6 model-id: 0xB7 (183) stepping: 1
    microcode: 0x113
  Topology: cpus: 1x cores: 14 mt: 6 tpc: 2 st: 8 threads: 20 smt: enabled
    cache: L1: 1.2 MiB desc: d-8x32 KiB, 6x48 KiB; i-6x32 KiB, 8x64 KiB
    L2: 20 MiB desc: 6x2 MiB, 2x4 MiB L3: 24 MiB desc: 1x24 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 2120 high: 3500 min/max: 800/5100:3900 scaling:
    driver: intel_pstate governor: powersave cores: 1: 1100 2: 3500 3: 1100
    4: 3500 5: 1100 6: 1100 7: 1101 8: 3500 9: 1101 10: 3500 11: 1100 12: 3500
    13: 800 14: 3500 15: 800 16: 800 17: 3500 18: 3500 19: 3500 20: 800
    bogomips: 139820
  Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
  Vulnerabilities:
  Type: itlb_multihit status: Not affected
  Type: l1tf status: Not affected
  Type: mds status: Not affected
  Type: meltdown status: Not affected
  Type: mmio_stale_data status: Not affected
  Type: retbleed status: Not affected
  Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via
    prctl
  Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer
    sanitization
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Enhanced / Automatic IBRS, IBPB: conditional,
    RSB filling, PBRSB-eIBRS: SW sequence
  Type: srbds status: Not affected
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
  Device-1: AMD Navi 23 [Radeon RX 6600/6600 XT/6600M] vendor: Sapphire
    driver: amdgpu v: kernel arch: RDNA-2 code: Navi-2x process: TSMC n7 (7nm)
    built: 2020-22 pcie: gen: 4 speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16 ports: active: DP-3
    empty: DP-1,DP-2,HDMI-A-1 bus-ID: 03:00.0 chip-ID: 1002:73ff class-ID: 0300
  Device-2: Logitech C922 Pro Stream Webcam driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo
    type: USB rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 bus-ID: 1-13:5
    chip-ID: 046d:085c class-ID: 0102 serial: <filter>
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.8 with: Xwayland v: 23.1.1
    compositor: gnome-shell driver: X: loaded: amdgpu
    unloaded: modesetting,radeon alternate: fbdev,vesa dri: radeonsi
    gpu: amdgpu display-ID: :0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 3840x1600 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 1016x423mm (40.00x16.65")
    s-diag: 1101mm (43.33")
  Monitor-1: DP-3 mapped: DisplayPort-2 model: LG (GoldStar) HDR WQHD
    serial: <filter> built: 2018 res: 3840x1600 hz: 60 dpi: 111 gamma: 1.2
    size: 880x370mm (34.65x14.57") diag: 952mm (37.5") modes: max: 3840x1600
    min: 640x480
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6 Mesa 23.0.4 renderer: AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT (navi23
    LLVM 15.0.7 DRM 3.52 6.3.5-2-MANJARO) direct-render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Alder Lake-S HD Audio vendor: ASUSTeK driver: snd_hda_intel
    v: kernel alternate: snd_sof_pci_intel_tgl bus-ID: 00:1f.3 chip-ID: 8086:7ad0
    class-ID: 0403
  Device-2: AMD Navi 21/23 HDMI/DP Audio driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel
    pcie: gen: 4 speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16 bus-ID: 03:00.1 chip-ID: 1002:ab28
    class-ID: 0403
  Device-3: Logitech C922 Pro Stream Webcam driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo
    type: USB rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 bus-ID: 1-13:5
    chip-ID: 046d:085c class-ID: 0102 serial: <filter>
  API: ALSA v: k6.3.5-2-MANJARO status: kernel-api with: aoss
    type: oss-emulator tools: alsactl,alsamixer,amixer
  Server-1: JACK v: 1.9.22 status: off tools: N/A
  Server-2: PipeWire v: 0.3.70 status: off tools: pw-cli
  Server-3: PulseAudio v: 16.1 status: active with: pulseaudio-alsa
    type: plugin tools: pacat,pactl,pavucontrol
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8125 2.5GbE vendor: ASUSTeK driver: r8169 v: kernel
    pcie: gen: 2 speed: 5 GT/s lanes: 1 port: 3000 bus-ID: 07:00.0
    chip-ID: 10ec:8125 class-ID: 0200
  IF: enp7s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: ASUSTek ASUS USB-BT500 driver: btusb v: 0.8 type: USB rev: 1.1
    speed: 12 Mb/s lanes: 1 mode: 1.1 bus-ID: 1-10.2.4:9 chip-ID: 0b05:190e
    class-ID: e001 serial: <filter>
  Report: rfkill ID: hci0 rfk-id: 0 state: up address: see --recommends
RAID:
  Hardware-1: Intel Volume Management Device NVMe RAID Controller Intel
    driver: vmd v: 0.6 port: N/A bus-ID: 00:0e.0 chip-ID: 8086:a77f rev:
    class-ID: 0104
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 6.6 TiB used: 1.08 TiB (16.4%)
  SMART Message: Required tool smartctl not installed. Check --recommends
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 maj-min: 259:0 vendor: Western Digital model: WD BLACK
    SN850X HS 1000GB size: 931.51 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B
    logical: 512 B speed: 63.2 Gb/s lanes: 4 tech: SSD serial: <filter>
    fw-rev: 620311WD temp: 37.9 C scheme: GPT
  ID-2: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Western Digital
    model: WDS200T2B0A-00SM50 size: 1.82 TiB block-size: physical: 512 B
    logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s tech: SSD serial: <filter> fw-rev: 20WD
    scheme: GPT
  ID-3: /dev/sdb maj-min: 8:16 vendor: Crucial model: M4-CT256M4SSD2
    size: 238.47 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s
    tech: SSD serial: <filter> fw-rev: 000F scheme: MBR
  ID-4: /dev/sdc maj-min: 8:32 vendor: Seagate model: ST4000DM004-2CV104
    size: 3.64 TiB block-size: physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s
    tech: HDD rpm: 5425 serial: <filter> fw-rev: 0001 scheme: GPT
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 743.72 GiB size: 730.97 GiB (98.29%) used: 25.99 GiB (3.6%)
    fs: ext4 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2 maj-min: 259:2
  ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 300 MiB size: 299.4 MiB (99.80%)
    used: 288 KiB (0.1%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/nvme0n1p3 maj-min: 259:3
  ID-3: /home raw-size: 1.82 TiB size: 1.79 TiB (98.37%)
    used: 1.06 TiB (59.0%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1 maj-min: 8:1
Swap:
  Kernel: swappiness: 60 (default) cache-pressure: 100 (default)
  ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 512 MiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2
    file: /swapfile
  ID-2: swap-2 type: partition size: 187.5 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%)
    priority: -3 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1 maj-min: 259:1
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 37.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: amdgpu temp: 37.0 C
    mem: 34.0 C
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A gpu: amdgpu fan: 0
Info:
  Processes: 471 Uptime: 30m wakeups: 2 Memory: available: 62.55 GiB
  used: 12.26 GiB (19.6%) Init: systemd v: 253 default: graphical
  tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 13.1.1 clang: 15.0.7 Packages: 1599
  pm: pacman pkgs: 1594 libs: 375 tools: gnome-software,pamac,yay pm: flatpak
  pkgs: 5 Shell: Zsh v: 5.9 running-in: gnome-terminal inxi: 3.3.27

[yrogge]

I have also noticed such behavior, but with at lot of different fonts. But there is a simple and obvious solution: run "fc-cache -fr" as root (sudo), then as local user. Then close your session (or applications in trouble) and restart. Explanation: apps are not aware of the automatic background fonts cache update.

[enoren5]

Hi yrogge. Thanks for the reply. I ran $ sudo fc-cache -fr and then $ fc-cache -fr. Next I rebooted. Nautilus and Gnome Settings remained in their original state without the expected proper Nordic Polar appearance.

[yrogge]

Oh. I'm sorry for you. Under Wayand (and Xwayland), this behavior is normal, because the native applications do not use the user theme, but the system theme - contained in "libadwaita.so", not in the ".theme" directory (local or system wide) - that cannot be changed. Your gsettings parameters only define the "old applications" style. I'm afraid that this is now the same for Xorg, that I do not use anymore for security reasons. Forget it!

[enoren5]

I am pretty sure you are right: I was reading elsewhere that newer versions of Gnome and libadwaita.so are not backwards compatible and aren’t as customizable. Apparently upstream Gnome project leadership don’t really want the community creating themes anymore. They want their users using their two Light or Dark default themes only.

But if that is the direction that the Gnome project is going in general, then why do @EliverLara, or all the other theme developers in the community, continue to work on and build their themes? Are they using previous versions of Gnome? Or is there some other way to get Nordic-Polar to parse even on Wayland and the latest versions of Gnome? I am wondering if I am still missing something here.

Oh. I'm sorry for you.

There is no need to feel sorry for anyone. We are just sharing ideas here.