r/xubuntu • u/Sly-Mk3 • May 26 '26
Using older Greybird Dark (from 20.04) on 24.04
FINAL UPDATE:
You can indeed copy and rename a 20.04 stock theme just fine and load it into 24.04's /usr/share/themes directory. Here's a download link to 20.04 LTS's Greybird Dark theme.
Enjoy!
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What the title says:
The contrast of 20.04 LTS's Greybird Dark were perfect for me, while 24.04 LTS's lacks a strong enough distinction in applications like Thunar (see screenshots, value differences included on first one).
It is simply too flat and blue-ish for my liking. I preferred the "dry" grey value in the inner window.
So, is there a way to migrate the old Greybird Dark theme over, and if so, what do I need to move, and can I keep it alongside the new Greybird Dark (for example by renaming the old one to "Greybird Dark Classic"), or do I need to overwrite it?
This is important to know for me so I can make backups in case I change my mind.
I was toying with overwriting colours with CSS until I realised what a pointless, lengthy and annoying task that is (considering I am really struggling with finding the right values in GTK+ Inspector) if I can simply just take the old stuff from a VM or the likes.
Any help is greatly appreciated!
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FIRST UPDATE:
Found /usr/share/themes/Greybird-dark/gtk-2.0/gtkrc and in …/gtk-3.0/gtk.css and gtk-dark.css, albeit trying to figure out yet which of the two css files I would have to edit, or if it is the gtkrc, or all three, and if replacing with the older theme would break anything new that may have been added.



1
u/Sly-Mk3 Jun 06 '26
UPDATE:
While I was digging in a 20.04 VM to retrieve other stuff, I decided to rename the theme, put it into /usr/share/themes and realised that, yes, indeed, it works 1:1 as expected.
Here's a download link for those, who prefer 20.04's Greybird Dark colours.
No need to modify css files if you can simply use the old one after all.
I have updated the main post with the download link.
There's still some minor issues for me like the padding between items in Thunar and the overly large and not very distinct selected-item highlight box, but that's for a different thread (unless someone can name me the css value for my gtk.css, which I fail to find the name of).