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**DoYouKubuntu** · Apr 21, 2021, 06:16 PM

Hi there Salamander, and welcome aboard!

Something I've found in later Kubuntu versions is that it takes multiple settings to accomplish what you're after. For example, you may need to change (or tweak) one setting, such as Global Theme, in order to make something else, like Window Decorations, work right.

Been there, done that!

So my suggestion is, to start with, tell us each of your choices for the following:

- Global Theme (e.g., Breeze)
- Plasma Style (e.g., Oxygen)
- Application Style (e.g., QtCurve)
- Window Decorations (e.g., Plastik -- tell us which one you're using and which one you want to use)
- Colors (e.g., Oxygen)

We'll take it from there! Don't despair, it should be doable.

**Salamander** · Apr 21, 2021, 07:49 PM

Hello @DoYouKubuntu

Pleasure to be here!

Global Theme: Breeze Dark
Plasma Style: Breeze Dark
Application Style: Breeze
Window Decorations (Stuck): We10XOS-dark (installed theme)
Windows Decorations (Desired): Layan-solid (installed theme)
Colors: Breeze Dark

No despair, just embarrassment

lol I feel like I should be able to spearhead something as seemingly simple as "themes"
I really appreciate the help!

**Tom_ZeCat** · Apr 21, 2021, 08:38 PM

Originally posted by Salamander View Post

Hello @DoYouKubuntu

Pleasure to be here!

Global Theme: Breeze Dark
Plasma Style: Breeze Dark
Application Style: Breeze
Window Decorations (Stuck): We10XOS-dark (installed theme)
Windows Decorations (Desired): Layan-solid (installed theme)
Colors: Breeze Dark

No despair, just embarrassment

lol I feel like I should be able to spearhead something as seemingly simple as "themes"
I really appreciate the help!

Salamander. First, welcome to Kubuntu. I've used other *buntus as well. I started with regular Ubuntu, then experimented some with Lubuntu, then finally went for Kubuntu. For a while I switched to Linux Mint/KDE, but came back to Kubuntu. It's a great distro.

Anyway, I believe all the settings you'll want to check are as follows:
System Settings ==> Global Theme
System Settings ==> Plasma Style
System Settings ==> Application Style
under that:
1. Application Style
2. Window Decorations
under Window Decorations:
a) Theme
b) Titlebar Buttons

I can highly recommend documenting all your settings in a CherryTree file. If you haven't used CherryTree, it's a GNU/OpenSource hierarchical note-taking program. I keep a record in a CT file of every single setting change I did and every application I installed, and how I installed it (whether via the repository, a PPA, a debian file, or a snap or Flatpak). This way if I ever need to do a from-scratch OS-install, I've got instructions on exactly what I did. I find this especially useful for theme changes. I used to make them and then not remember what I did and then be frustrated when doing an OS reinstall or setting up a new machine.

One more question for you: How have you done your application installs? Specifically, did you install anything via Flatpak? The Flatpak-hating SWAT team my show up any minute, but I've used Flatpak for a few installs. It offers certain advantages, but one disadvantage is a Flatpak-based application might do its own thing for its interface theme, ignoring the settings you've picked in Kubuntu. There are workarounds to get Flatpak-installed apps to reflect the theme you've picked. If everything else is displaying your theme of choice except for one Flatpak-installed-app, that's probably why. Then the remedy would be to tinker that theme into the Flatpak install or to uninstall the app and reinstall with a different install method.

Btw, here's a screen shot of my CherryTree Kubuntu install documentation:

**claydoh** · Apr 21, 2021, 08:39 PM

I am assuming not even the stock Breeze decoration can be used?

I am thinking the first place to look is file permissions/ownerships on the config files.
Something like:
find $HOME -user root -ls
Normally, this would manifest itself as theme items reverting to previous settings and styles after logging off, but you never know.

Another thing to try, particularly if the decoration themes are using Kvantum may be to uninstall qt5-style-kvantum and see if that allows for decorations to be changed from System Setings, or to open the Kvantum Manager and look at the settings there - your desired theme might be listed and select-able in there if it is using this engine.

**Salamander** · Apr 21, 2021, 09:23 PM

@Tom_ZeCat My history with distros is almost exactly the same, substituting Lubu for Xubu! I started looking for alternatives when Gnome got nasty (RIP little buddy)
My last reply are my current settings. What else could I share with you?
Most of my software is installed via Discover. I believe I have a few Flatpaks installed but I'm not having theme issues with those applications, everything is looking good!... except yanno, the Window Decorations being wrong! Snap is what I try to avoid

Amazing suggestion on the CT. That is an organizational dream come true. I installed CherryTree and will begin building my 'settings' file. I have a LOT of changes I make and it's very easy to lose track of.

@claydoh Here is the output https://pastebin.com/raw/ZufmcXsG Not sure if that's any help.
I installed Kvantum Manager and did a little poking around but things are looking scary and I don't know what to do exactly lol
I don't see any of my installed theme in the manager and I'm not sure the Window Decorations are using Kvantum anyway.

**claydoh** · Apr 22, 2021, 05:12 AM

You should not have *any* files in $HOME owned by root.

However most of these are from your trash and are related to Anbox. You'll have to manually delete these as emptying won't remove them.

The last one is a script file on your desktop ominously called plasma-reset.

I wonder what that does......
The fact that it is owned by root implies it may have been run with sudo, which is a no-no for dealing with user files and configs.

Might want to look at read/write permissions on files and dirs in ~~~/.local/share/plasma,~~ ~/.local/share/aurorae/themes/ ~~particularly these related to windecos.~~ and your ~/.config/kwinrc

Is this the only area showing this sort of anomaly?

Sent from my LM-V600 using Tapatalk

**Salamander** · Apr 22, 2021, 07:41 AM

plasma-reset is just a little script I made to fix my garbled desktop after resume

it's small but I'll include the code in case it's responsible for unknown screwiness.

Code:

#!/bin/bash
# Restarts plasma-shell to fix f**ked up desktop icons, thanks to nvidia
kstart5 plasmashell -- --replace

It seems it is owned by root and I haven't the slightest idea how that happened. I run it just fine without it prompting me for my password.

Here are the details of those directories:
~.local/share/plasma - owned by my user with rwx
~.local/share/aurorae/themes - owned by my user with rwx
~.config/kwinrc - owned by my user with r--

Just scanned Trash with Bleachbit and apparently there's 20+GB of old trash in there, even though I can't see it!
find $HOME -user root -ls returns absolutely nothing now, which is good.

**claydoh** · Apr 22, 2021, 09:05 AM

Did you run it with sudo?? Never do things to local user configs with sudo, it is not necessary for things like desktop level user-specific settings, and *will* muck things up

Anyhoo, we have a bingo:

~.config/kwinrc - owned by my user with r--

You can't write to the file that sets the windeco.....

Should be -rwxrwxrwx

So either fix it via Dolphin, delete it (a new one will be generated) or chmod it to 777 on the command line

**claydoh** · Apr 22, 2021, 09:27 AM

Just scanned Trash with Bleachbit and apparently there's 20+GB of old trash in there, even though I can't see it!
find $HOME -user root -ls returns absolutely nothing now, which is good.

There are the actual files in the trash, and then there is the separate dir which has the info about the files there that a file manager can use, as there can be files with the same names etc. It is possible that the info is still there but not the files, or vice versa.
Look at ~.local/share/Trash/ and see the various dirs in there to see what I am talking about. I don't trust Bleachbit at all, not since its early days when using its default cleaning settings would delete important things needed by KDE, and break the desktop so badly you could not log in.
The did fix this, eventually.

**Salamander** · Apr 22, 2021, 10:12 AM

@claydoh well, mystery solved! When I initially created that script I somehow executed it as root and I remember my whole theme changed to default breeze and my user in the application menu was showing 'root'
It was scary and I immediately rebooted with SEEMINGLY no issues. I'm not sure what I did to make it run as my user account but it has been... and I also changed the ownership

chmod 777 it is! Because that's the cool way. I thank you very much! Now time to try and figure out why the 'Smilie List' opens a window that's just the window decorations in Firefox. This also happens with Paypal express checkout... OFF TO THE FIREFOX FORUMS!

Thanks again!

**kubicle** · Apr 22, 2021, 10:14 AM

Originally posted by claydoh View Post

So either fix it via Dolphin, delete it (a new one will be generated) or chmod it to 777 on the command line

600 (-rw--------) would suffice, doesn't need to be executable or read/write for anyone but the user (primary group rw is also fine [660]), but you generally don't want your config files to be rw for all users.

**Salamander** · Apr 22, 2021, 10:15 AM

Originally posted by kubicle View Post

600 (-rw--------) would suffice, doesn't need to be executable or read/write for anyone but the user (primary group rw is also fine [660]), but you generally don't want your config files to be rw for all users.

chmod 660 it is! Ahhh... that's nice... Window Decorations that aren't awful

**claydoh** · Apr 22, 2021, 11:44 AM

Originally posted by kubicle View Post

600 (-rw--------) would suffice, doesn't need to be executable or read/write for anyone but the user (primary group rw is also fine [660]), but you generally don't want your config files to be rw for all users.

I just matched it to those on both my systems, as well as other similar files. I did contemplate just doing the minimum but figured setting it to what it would be from the OS/ DE would be 'better'.

**kubicle** · Apr 22, 2021, 12:34 PM

Originally posted by claydoh View Post

I just matched it to those on both my systems, as well as other similar files. I did contemplate just doing the minimum but figured setting it to what it would be from the OS/ DE would be 'better'.

I'm fairly sure having 777 permissions on files in your home is not the default (at least it has never been the case with any linux systems I've ever installed)...although it's been literally years since I've installed kubuntu.

What's the umask for your user? (run 'umask' to check)

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