18.04: How to Manually Modify Title Bar Color and change Border Width in Themes

[apollothethird]

I usually have over 10 terminal screen running on my three attached monitors with various terminal applications and remove sessions. The Themes that come with Ubuntu don't have borders. So it's extremely hard to tell where the windows begin and the others end when trying to work. This makes working on the terminal screens extremely difficult.

Also, the active border active and background border colors of the windows are so similar, it very hard to tell which window is selected. I often start to type in the wrong window and spend a lot of productive time trying to figure out which one is active.

For years I have use This Method (https://askubuntu.com/a/464720/29012) modify one of the defaults and create a custom workable theme.

In the past, it was dependent on the unity.css file. Since version 18.04 doesn't use Unity, the changes I have tried to make doesn't work anymore.

Can someone help?

Thanks in advance of what to change in either the Adwaita or Ambiance theme.

-- L. James

--
L. D. James
ljames@apollo3.com
www.apollo3.com/~ljames (http://www.apollo3.com/~ljames)

[monkeybrain20122]

If unity works for you why not continue with it? I am on 18.04 with unity here. Fast and smooth, everything just works,


If want to give it a try just do

sudo apt install ubuntu-unity-desktop

choose lightdm as your default

reboot, log into unity session in the login greeter screen

That's it

If you are using a labtop for certain touchpad functions you need to install the package xserver-xorg-input-synaptics

i have added the unity7 maintainer ppa (https://launchpad.net/~unity7maintainers/+archive/ubuntu/unity7-desktop) but I think it is optional.

The package ubuntu-unity-desktop package pulls in some recommended pkgs like mpv, gnome-mpv and youtube-dl. You can uninstall them later if you don't need them. ( I have tried "sudo apt install --no-install-recommends ubuntu-unity-desktop" but somehow something didn't work, maybe it was my set up, or may be some recommended pkgs are actually needed, so installl the recommends on the safe side)

If all work you can uninstall gnome-shell (or keep it if you wish)

Follow https://community.ubuntu.com/c/desktop/ubuntu-unity-dev for info,

[apollothethird]

If unity works for you why not continue with it? I am on 18.04 with unity here. Fast and smooth, everything just works,


If want to give it a try just do

sudo apt install ubuntu-unity-desktop

choose lightdm as your default

reboot, log into unity session in the login greeter screen

That's it

If you are using a labtop for certain touchpad functions you need to install the package xserver-xorg-input-synaptics

i have added the unity7 maintainer ppa (https://launchpad.net/~unity7maintainers/+archive/ubuntu/unity7-desktop) but I think it is optional.

The package ubuntu-unity-desktop package pulls in some recommended pkgs like mpv, gnome-mpv and youtube-dl. You can uninstall them later if you don't need them. ( I have tried "sudo apt install --no-install-recommends ubuntu-unity-desktop" but somehow something didn't work, maybe it was my set up, or may be some recommended pkgs are actually needed, so installl the recommends on the safe side)

If all work you can uninstall gnome-shell (or keep it if you wish)

Follow https://community.ubuntu.com/c/desktop/ubuntu-unity-dev for info,

Thanks, I might have to if I can't figure out a way to get Borders and distinguishable title bars. I have used the 18.04 interface for a few days and have started liking it. I also hope to be able to continue giving Ubuntu support for the default environment.

Originally I hated Unity. I kept using it, for the same reason that I'm continuing with the 18.04 basic interface. It looks very promising with just a few bugs, and blemishes.

There's a good chance that someone will point a method for fixing the configuring the titles and borders, just as they did with Unity.

-- L. James

--
L. D. James
ljames@apollo3.com
www.apollo3.com/~ljames

[apollothethird]

I gratefully appreciate all the time and input from all who helped with suggestions and workarounds to get a resolution to my issue.

The question was answered on AskUbuntu (https://askubuntu.com/a/1040536/29012).

Place the configuration in ~/.config/gtk-3.0/gtk.css

This code did the trick:


.titlebar {
background: #0759EB;
}

.titlebar:backdrop {
background: #8A0829;
color:white;
}

decoration {
border: 3px solid #0759EB;
background: #0759EB;
}
decoration:backdrop {
border: 2px solid #8A0829;
background: #8A0829;
}


-- L. James

--
L. D. James
ljames@apollo3.com
www.apollo3.com/~ljames (http://www.apollo3.com/~ljames)

[deadflowr]

Did you mean to add the Lubuntu prefix to your thread title?
I can see that being a turn off for a lot of users who would have otherwise understood what you wanted.

[apollothethird]

Did you mean to add the Lubuntu prefix to your thread title?
I can see that being a turn off for a lot of users who would have otherwise understood what you wanted.

No, I didn't mean to add LUbuntu to the thread. I was having lots of problems seeing the screens. I thought I had included the Ubuntu tag. I also had no idea that Lubuntu would be a turnoff to the users. I thought the various flavors of Ubuntu were very similar in their basic operation, having access to the same repository.

I performed the suggested steps to add lightdm and choose it as my login.

Thanks for the info and feedback. I'll be more careful in the future when posting and choosing tags.

I have installed Lubuntu a few times on clients machines who had limited resources. I didn't like the appearance, but the performance was better. I eventually got them to upgrade their hardware and moved them to Ubuntu.

I was looking for a way to remove/change the Lubuntu tag, but can't find it... can you assist?

Thanks!

-- L. James

--
L. D. James
ljames@apollo3.com
www.apollo3.com/~ljames (http://www.apollo3.com/~ljames)

[deadflowr]

I was looking for a way to remove/change the Lubuntu tag, but can't find it... can you assist?

Done.
I'm not sure what the status of this thread is, but if (or when) it is solved you can mark it as solved
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UnansweredPostsTeam/SolvedThreads