HOWTO: Make QT apps look more Gnome'ish

[arnieboy]

Originally written by FLeiXiuS (http://ubuntuforums.org/member.php?u=26)

Edited and rewritten By arnieboy

Polymer QT Theme

1.) You will need to install qt3-qtconfig in order to change the styles.
sudo apt-get install qt3-qtconfig
2.) Now it's time to install the theme. download and install the following package:
wget http://www.informatik.tu-cottbus.de/~mkrause/debian/polymer/polymer_0.3.2-1_i386.deb
sudo dpkg -i polymer_0.3.2-1_i386.deb
3.) Lastly install msttcorefonts. (These are not required but it makes the style look SMOOTH!)
sudo apt-get install msttcorefonts
4.) Now that the files are installed lets get to the config!
qtconfig
5.) Lets change the font before hand to make it look even sweeter in the end. I decided to use Sans Serif 10pt. Make the following changes...
-Default Font-
Family: Sans Serif
Style: Normal
Point Size: 10


6.) Now click on the Library Paths tab. In the input-box at the bottom enter "/usr/plugins" (minus quotes) and then click add.

7.) Now in the Appearance tab, select Polymer as your GUI style.


8.) Go to File>Save. Exit the program and your almost done!


Another great benefit of this theme is that it has TRANSPARENCY!!
polymer-config
Down around the bottom you'll see "KDE Style Settings", change the "Transparency Engine" to "Software Tint" and then close the application. You will be prompted to save, click yes of course.

For other KDE applications, you'll need kcontrol.

1.) Install kcontrol
sudo apt-get install kcontrol
2.) Configuring the new theme.
kcontrol
3.) Click Appearance and Themes--->Style and select the "Polymer" theme.
4.) Click Appearance and Themes-->Fonts-->Adjust all fonts and check the "font" box and change to Sans Serif and the "size" box to change the size to 10
Apply and exit

Credits:
1) Kassetra
2) GilGalad

[LaSSarD]

Tested and approved :)

[flibblesan]

Excellent, works. But the howto needs to be cleaned up. You have duplicated steps and I can see that a novice could get to the first 5 steps wondering why the theme isn't showing up. Can you please give it a full clean up and remove anything that isn't required? :)

[matthias_k]

Before / After Screenshots Below!
Where? ^^

[arnieboy]

Where? ^^
no screenshots.. sorry. but this thing works (I have tested it myself). Its someone else's howto and I am just transferring it to the breezy forum cuz thats my job.

[hanzj]

The howto needs to be cleaned up. You have duplicated steps and I can see that a novice could get to the first 5 steps wondering why the theme isn't showing up. Can you please give it a full clean up and remove anything that isn't required? :)

arnie, I read your reply to flibblesan, and I think a editing would be very helpful. I really don't think it should be left the way it is. It's confusing. It's hard to know that/what you're quoting, and thus hard to know where your howto starts and ends. I'm going back and forth between your post here and flexius's post, and I'm still trying to figure it out.

Reading for another time, I'm not sure of the reason why steps 1-5 were repeated.

I was wondering why you wanted to keep flexius's words. Perhaps you feel that you don't want to take undue credit, or perhaps you don't want to rip him off. And this would be very noble of you. Well, you could cite his article at the beginning, saying "This howto is based on Flexius's howto for hoary (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=56630)." You could give mention that this is someone else's post, but you don't have to leave things the way they are. If you really want to keep flexius's words, you could at least format the design to make it easy to see what's going on.


yours...

[traherom]

Because he just copied the whole darned thing... he's trying to move things over which work in Breezy, not rewrite everything. Quit yelling at the man for making this easy for you to find.

[arnieboy]

arnie, I read your reply to flibblesan, and I think a editing would be very helpful. I really don't think it should be left the way it is. It's confusing. It's hard to know that/what you're quoting, and thus hard to know where your howto starts and ends. I'm going back and forth between your post here and flexius's post, and I'm still trying to figure it out.

Reading for another time, I'm not sure of the reason why steps 1-5 were repeated.

I was wondering why you wanted to keep flexius's words. Perhaps you feel that you don't want to take undue credit, or perhaps you don't want to rip him off. And this would be very noble of you. Well, you could cite his article at the beginning, saying "This howto is based on Flexius's howto for hoary (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=56630)." You could give mention that this is someone else's post, but you don't have to leave things the way they are. If you really want to keep flexius's words, you could at least format the design to make it easy to see what's going on.


yours...
I am just doing my job here.. typically I dont like editing howto's of other people... but the kids are screaming too loud on this thread.. so I will rewrite the first post when I get time.

[arnieboy]

does the Howto look any neater now?

[hanzj]

does the Howto look any neater now?
Arnie, it looks great! On behalf of all the ubuntu Gnome kids, thank you.

[magic_T]

Yep, this really makes Skype look good! Nice work!

[pelago]

This is great. (I used used https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QtGnome which is similar but also includes instructions to get the XLinSans font).

Anyone know whether there's a colour scheme for KDE to match the default Ubuntu brown theme?

[flower]

GREAT thanks !!!

I can't belive it ... I tought my skype will be ugly forever ...

thanks :) smells like geek spirit :)

[abmcr]

I used used https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QtGnome which is similar but also includes instructions to get the XLinSans font.
But what is the line to add on the sources.list files?

sarge (stable)->hoary:
etch (testing) / sid (unstable)->breezy:
:confused:
Thank you

[Wyld]

So, any chance this (what I am assuming here is non-arch dependant issue) can become non-arch dependant? I'm running AMD64 here, and can't install the i386 file.

[bmk789]

Maybe I'm missing something, I followed the directions but it didn't apply to skype. How do I get it to apply to skype?

[ubnoobie]

does the Howto look any neater now?
it should warn folks of the 7 depends for kcontrol, though.

[djpeanut]

There's one change I would make based on my following of the HOWTO. After adding "usr/plugins" in qtconfig, I had to choose File > Save before Polymer would show up in the drop-down menu.

Otherwise, great! Thanks!

[donar73]

Great HowTo, thx alot! :)
Amarok looks fantastic now!

http://img498.imageshack.us/img498/3420/bildschirmfoto13yj.th.png (http://img498.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bildschirmfoto13yj.png)

[Sionide]

That is brilliant. Props to all those involved. Thanks alot!!

[byoon]

Every time I try to run kcontrol, my system locks up.

I can still move the mouse around, but I cannot change window focus, I cannot do anything with the keyboard (not ctl-alt-bckspc or anything else), the clock doesn't even increment.

I am running the regular desktop with no kubuntu packages installed except the ones for kcontrol and qt-config. The qt-config modifications work fine.

Anybody have any ideas?

[arnieboy]

Every time I try to run kcontrol, my system locks up.

I can still move the mouse around, but I cannot change window focus, I cannot do anything with the keyboard (not ctl-alt-bckspc or anything else), the clock doesn't even increment.

I am running the regular desktop with no kubuntu packages installed except the ones for kcontrol and qt-config. The qt-config modifications work fine.

Anybody have any ideas?
try doing the following:
rm -rf $HOME/.kde
and try starting kcontrol again.

[byoon]

I tried this already. I deleted .kde & .qt and tried to restart but it still hangs.

I even tried to run using "sudo kcontrol" and it still hangs.

Any other ideas?


try doing the following:
rm -rf $HOME/.kde
and try starting kcontrol again.

[veloct]

Written by FLeiXiuS (http://ubuntuforums.org/member.php?u=26)

Edited By arnieboy

Polymer QT Theme
This sorta looks exactly like gnomes clearlooks.
1.) You will need to install qt3-qtconfig in order to change the styles.
sudo apt-get install qt3-qtconfig
2.) Now it's time to install the theme. download the install the following package:
wget http://fleixius.com/files/downloads/polymer-0.3.2_0.3.2-1_i386.deb
sudo dpkg -i polymer-0.3.2_0.3.2-1_i386.deb
3.) Lastly install msttcorefonts. (These are not required but it makes the style look SMOOTH!)
sudo apt-get install msttcorefonts
4.) Now that the files are installed lets get to the config!
qtconfig
5.) Lets change the font before hand to make it look even sweeter in the end. I decided to use Sans Serif 10pt. Make the following changes...
-Default Font-
Family: Sans Serif
Style: Normal
Point Size: 10


6.) Now click on the Library Paths tab. In the input-box at the bottom enter "/usr/plugins" (minus quotes) and then click add.

7.) Now in the Appearance tab, select Polymer as your GUI style.


8.) Go to File>Save. Exit the program and your almost done!


Another great benefit of this theme is that it has TRANSPARENCY!!
polymer-config
Down around the bottom you'll see "KDE Style Settings", change the "Transparency Engine" to "Software Tint" and then close the application. You will be prompted to save, click yes of course.

For other KDE applications, you'll need kcontrol.

1.) Install kcontrol
sudo apt-get install kcontrol
2.) Configuring the new theme.
kcontrol
3.) Click Appearance and Themes--->Style and select the "Polymer" theme.
4.) Click Appearance and Themes-->Fonts-->Adjust all fonts and check the "font" box and change to Sans Serif and the size box to change the size to 10
Apply and exit

Credits:
1) Kassetra
2) GilGalad

Worked flawlesly. Thanks for the effort on the rewrite.

[lonetree]

I still have problem doing this

[ThomThom]

Nice howto. I was horrified of how Skype looked like. In Windows and OSX it looks very nice.

However, I had to restart qtconfig between point 6 and 7 to get the polymer theme to appear.

Is there any way to enable font smoothing as well? (I couldn't see any settings)

And what was this kcontrol? Did I just install KDE there?

[ThomThom]

Ignore the question about anti-aliasing. The kcontrol font section fixed that.

[arnieboy]

Nice howto. I was horrified of how Skype looked like. In Windows and OSX it looks very nice.

However, I had to restart qtconfig between point 6 and 7 to get the polymer theme to appear.

Is there any way to enable font smoothing as well? (I couldn't see any settings)

And what was this kcontrol? Did I just install KDE there?
kcontrol is the control panel for kde. it contains almost all settings for the kde desktop. yes, when u install kcontrol, u install lots of kde libs and packages.

[lonetree]

Has anyone got polymer work on 5.04? I managed to install qtconfig and fonts did change to the type i want, but the polymer option in Appearance did not show up. When I did a polymer-config, it throws an error:

#polymer-config
polymer-config: error while loading shared libraries: libstdc++.so.6: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory


Btw, has anyone has got Skype successfully installed on 5.10 via apt-get? If yes, can someone guide me on this? Or what is the repository for this. Thanks a lot.

regards,

[arnieboy]

Has anyone got polymer work on 5.04? I managed to install qtconfig and fonts did change to the type i want, but the polymer option in Appearance did not show up. When I did a polymer-config, it throws an error:

#polymer-config
polymer-config: error while loading shared libraries: libstdc++.so.6: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory


Btw, has anyone has got Skype successfully installed on 5.10 via apt-get? If yes, can someone guide me on this? Or what is the repository for this. Thanks a lot.

regards,
for using this howto on 5.04 refer to the following:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=56630&highlight=HOWTO%3A+Make+QT+apps
for installing skype on 5.10 use automatix (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=66563)

[lonetree]

for using this howto on 5.04 refer to the following:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=56630&highlight=HOWTO%3A+Make+QT+apps
for installing skype on 5.10 use automatix (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=66563)


Thanks a zillion :-)

[Rob2687]

I had to use sudo kcontrol and sudo qtconfig to get the settings to save and to get Polymer to show up.

[tanari]

Why do you use polymer? Try Klearlook (http://www.kde-look.org/content/show.php?content=31717) theme!

Check my screenshot:

[JoshHendo]

Ok. Below is what my skype looked like before (no, that isn't my skype, though it is what it looked like):
http://neojp.aquitperu.com/personal/data/phoo/2005_10_25/skype1.png

Below is what my skype looks like now (yes, and this time it is my skype :P) :)
http://uploadgo.com/files/skype.png

Thanks allot :D

[ember]

Why do you use polymer? Try Klearlook (http://www.kde-look.org/content/show.php?content=31717) theme!

Check my screenshot:

Ah, great to know - that's exactly what I was looking for.

[el_Salmon]

arnieboy, qt-config must be reboot then you add "polymer" library path. Moreover, you should write a Klearlooks in the HOWTO.

By the way, thank you very much. My desktop is cool now !

[george_apan]

Here is a KDE icon theme with the default ubuntu icons:
http://kde-look.org/content/show.php?content=27788&vote=good&tan=42362229&PHPSESSID=1a0306d035baedbc80d11b109f3fb682

Run kcontrol, go to Index/Appearance and Themes/Icons and push the "Install new theme" button. Select the .tar.bz2 file you downloaded and you've got gnome icons in KDE apps.

And here you can find a KDE color scheme that matches the ubuntu default:
http://kde-look.org/content/show.php?content=29333&vote=good&tan=96842971&PHPSESSID=1a0306d035baedbc80d11b109f3fb682

Again, run kcontrol, go to Index/Apperance and Themes/Colors and push the "Import scheme" button. Select the .kcsrc file you downloaded and you've got a matching color scheme in all KDE apps.

I just love the way my K3b looks right now... Thanks for the howto arnieboy! :)

[ashrack]

a guide called from heaven themself ;)

[stalefries]

By the way everyone, Skype has official repositories: http://forum.skype.com/viewtopic.php?t=29679

Add that line the guy has to your /etc/apt/sources.list and you will get the official Skype .deb's. W00t!

[stalefries]

Anyone got directions on how to get Klearlook? I can't find a .deb anywhere. I'll try compiling from source, and doing a checkinstall.

[stalefries]

Anyone got directions on how to get Klearlook? I can't find a .deb anywhere. I'll try compiling from source, and doing a checkinstall.

Uh-oh. I think it wants KDE installed. I don't have the time or the hard drive space to do that.

[tlaloczint]

I cant make it to install what I am doing wrong ?


tlaloczint@aztlan:~$ wget http://fleixius.com/files/downloads/polymer-0.3.2_0.3.2-1_i386.deb
--18:55:54-- http://fleixius.com/files/downloads/polymer-0.3.2_0.3.2-1_i386.deb => `polymer-0.3.2_0.3.2-1_i386.deb.1'
Resolving fleixius.com... 82.165.128.85
Connecting to fleixius.com|82.165.128.85|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: unspecified [text/html]

[ <=> ] 483 --.--K/s

18:55:54 (30.71 MB/s) - `polymer-0.3.2_0.3.2-1_i386.deb.1' saved [483]

tlaloczint@aztlan:~$ sudo dpkg -i polymer-0.3.2_0.3.2-1_i386.deb dpkg-deb: `polymer-0.3.2_0.3.2-1_i386.deb' is not a debian format archive
dpkg: error processing polymer-0.3.2_0.3.2-1_i386.deb (--install):
subprocess dpkg-deb --control returned error exit status 2
Errors were encountered while processing:
polymer-0.3.2_0.3.2-1_i386.deb
tlaloczint@aztlan:~$

[Chris Tucker]

you arent doing anything wrong.. i just tried to redo this after looseing the polymer deb file.
Length: unspecified [text/html] caught my attention, i used a web browser, and a server setting is redirecting EVERYTHING on that page to a list of .. digg quotes?
anyway, not to arnieboy! update your link please!
i cant find the theme file anywhere on the net thus far (but that was only 1 google search ;P)

[mp3guy]

Works great, skype looks perfect now. That link in the HOWTO is broken, but you can download polymer here; http://www.kde-look.org/content/download.php?content=21748&id=1 and build from source.

[sup]

the package can be downloaed from here http://static.int.pl/~mig21/dev/releases/polymer/ - it is a cource code, but ./configure make checkinstall went flawlessly and really quickly (it was compiled in lesser time than it takes for rhythmbox to configure:-D)

[arnieboy]

can anyone verify if the following package works or not? if it does, i will update the first post.
wget http://www.informatik.tu-cottbus.de/~mkrause/debian/polymer/polymer_0.3.2-1_i386.deb
sudo dpkg -i polymer_0.3.2-1_i386.deb

please follow the rest of the instructions as is on the first post.

[gtdj]

I cant make it to install what I am doing wrong ?


tlaloczint@aztlan:~$ wget http://fleixius.com/files/downloads/polymer-0.3.2_0.3.2-1_i386.deb
--18:55:54-- http://fleixius.com/files/downloads/polymer-0.3.2_0.3.2-1_i386.deb => `polymer-0.3.2_0.3.2-1_i386.deb.1'
Resolving fleixius.com... 82.165.128.85
Connecting to fleixius.com|82.165.128.85|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: unspecified [text/html]

[ <=> ] 483 --.--K/s

18:55:54 (30.71 MB/s) - `polymer-0.3.2_0.3.2-1_i386.deb.1' saved [483]

tlaloczint@aztlan:~$ sudo dpkg -i polymer-0.3.2_0.3.2-1_i386.deb dpkg-deb: `polymer-0.3.2_0.3.2-1_i386.deb' is not a debian format archive
dpkg: error processing polymer-0.3.2_0.3.2-1_i386.deb (--install):
subprocess dpkg-deb --control returned error exit status 2
Errors were encountered while processing:
polymer-0.3.2_0.3.2-1_i386.deb
tlaloczint@aztlan:~$

try

wget http://www.informatik.tu-cottbus.de/~mkrause/debian/polymer/polymer_0.3.2-1_i386.deb
sudo dpkg -i polymer_0.3.2-1_i386.deb

[tlaloczint]

Code:

wget http://www.informatik.tu-cottbus.de/~mkrause/debian/polymer/polymer_0.3.2-1_i386.deb sudo dpkg -i polymer_0.3.2-1_i386.deb




yep! that worked without a glich.

thanks

[ghanthar]

This is great thanks!!

[Leppiz]

So, any chance this (what I am assuming here is non-arch dependant issue) can become non-arch dependant? I'm running AMD64 here, and can't install the i386 file.

I managed to install the theme for AMD64 using following procedure:
1. install qtconfig as said on the original post
2. get the source from http://www.informatik.tu-cottbus.de/~mkrause/debian/polymer/polymer_0.3.2.orig.tar.gz
3. get the depedencies needed for building it
4. build and install the package:
./configure
make
make install
5. install the i386 over the built one(I don't know why this is needed):
sudo dpkg -i --force-architecture polymer_0.3.2-1_i386.deb

6. continue from the first post's step 3.

[roniez]

awww SWEET! skype and amrok looks teh sexy now.

[dunnerz]

Brilliant

worked fine (the first page) for me

Skype looks good now

As does Quanta


Cheers! \\:D/

[wvelez]

Great job!!! Excellent instructions.

:-)

[oopsz]

AMD64 users.. I've compiled a native AMD64 polymer deb here:
http://www.plur.ca/ubuntu/

(If you're using skype in a chroot, you're going to want to install the i386 version in your chroot, as well)

[escape]

Fantastic. Lyx-qt looks accpetable now with the rest of my gnome theming.

[blackrim]

just wanted to say that it looks great with xubuntu (xfce4) too. thanks

[sailor420]

Should this work in Dapper?

[Chris Tucker]

i still wish they would release an up-to-date version of skype for linux... even without video would be nice to have the new features

[hyperair]

*grumbles* I prefer Gnome and all, but couldn't they have some kinda QT engine to make the apps follow the Gnome themes? I'm currently playing around with KDE, and I found that Gnome apps look pretty much at home in that desktop environment. Wish it were the same the other way round.