Themes, themes, we need more themes!

[Spazholio]

Ok, two parter here:

1) Do we know why some themes written for the previous release don't work on the newest one? I've extracted the files from a theme that works versus one that doesn't, and neither of them have any reference to the OS version number or anything like that. If anyone knows how to repackage a .deb file once it's been extracted, I can try to make the non-working ones file structure match the working ones (hope that makes sense).

2) What are some of the themes that everyone out there uses, and where did they get them from? I've had to install the 12pt versions of the defaults since the defaults have some freaking huge text. :D I'd kill for some variation though.

Thanks!

[SomeoneE1se]

I'd be happy to come up with a few themes

suggestions?

[loki]

2) What are some of the themes that everyone out there uses, and where did they get them from? I've had to install the 12pt versions of the defaults since the defaults have some freaking huge text. :D I'd kill for some variation though.

Thanks!

Hey. Do you mean the themes from this location?
http://maemo.lancode.de/?path=./themes
I made some font changes to non-default themes too. But i am waiting for permission to release them. For example i am waiting for permission from author of the excellent plankton-theme.

greetz,
loki

[Xyzo]

Hey. Do you mean the themes from this location?
http://maemo.lancode.de/?path=./themes
I made some font changes to non-default themes too. But i am waiting for permission to release them. For example i am waiting for permission from author of the excellent plankton-theme.

greetz,
loki
Yes, your modified themes look excellent :) The font size on default themes is definitely too large. Can you confirm that your modified themes work well with the very ITOS2007 release? I've read that some graphic parts (new tabs on Media Player for example) were missing on (excellent!) Plankton theme: will we have the same sort of problems w/ your modified themes?
TIA.

[lancewex]

I very much miss using TechnopodMan's MAC OSX Theme. The original theme is just too unattractive. Please someone tell me why the OSX theme no longer works.

[rhouge]

I installed the Plankton theme on the new OS2007 with no problem. I guess I haven't noticed any major problem with the interface using it. Looks great!

[Spazholio]

Hey. Do you mean the themes from this location?
http://maemo.lancode.de/?path=./themes
I made some font changes to non-default themes too. But i am waiting for permission to release them. For example i am waiting for permission from author of the excellent plankton-theme.

You bet. Thanks for these themes, at least. They're something.

So...until you get permission to release the others, you probably need beta testers, eh? *hint hint* :cool:

Also...since you've obviously unpacked an existing theme, repacked it with a font change, and then had it successfully work on the new OS2007 release, can you give me some insight as to how you did it? Or point me to the location that I may have overlooked?

Thanks again!

[zerojay]

I'd like to see more themes that do not change the default icons and stuff.

[SebaSOFT]

I have a great theme in the making, but I have to make menus to be colored, is this possible?

[munky261]

hey someone else , my sugestion is a black theme , i havent got to try nuvoblack , as it wont work , i just want a dark theme for mine

[SebaSOFT]

Look at my working in progress...

This is the desktop...
http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/2148/skindesktopln9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

This is the application top bar...
http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/359/skinwithaprogramxn1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[SeRi@lDiE]

hey someone else , my sugestion is a black theme , i havent got to try nuvoblack , as it wont work , i just want a dark theme for mine

I agree I want a black theme but there surten applications that wont work because you can bearly see the text so a black theme with white background for apps would be perfect

[munky261]

i totally agree , could anybody develop a way to have a black theme , but be able to specify what color you want the text to be? i use the adria app myself , what id like to see is i guess you could call it an industrial type theme , dark grey/black plates with rivets. kinda know what i mean?

[Spazholio]

Well, I don't know why the .debs won't work for certain themes (like NuvoBlack), but if you extract the files from them, and copy them to the appropriate locations manually, it works just fine.

If anyone's curious, here's how I did it (I'll use NuvoBlack.deb as an example):

Create a new directory, and put the theme (in .deb form) in it:
mkdir nuvoblack
cp NuvoBlack.deb nuvoblack/

Move into that directory:
cd nuvoblack
Extract the files:
dpkg-deb -x NuvoBlack.deb ./
Copy the files where they need to go (note the periods in this command, they're important:
cp -rfp ./usr/share/themes/NuvoBlack/ /usr/share/themes
cp -rfp ./home/user/.opera/skin/NuvoBlack.zip /home/user/.opera/skin/
You're done! Activate the theme like you normally would.

Feel free to let me know if I've overlooked anything.

[Spazholio]

Oh, on a slightly unrelated note, does the Plankton theme have a background that comes with it? The stock 4 that come with the device are ok, but none of them really go well with the theme.

[SeRi@lDiE]

I have Modified the NuvoBlack theme (Konttori If you dont mind) To be black with white backgrounds in menus and applications so its now more usable....

For thos interested is in my FTP Server PM me and ill give you the info....
And by the way is a work in progress still not fully polish I am still working on replacing some buttons , etc...

[Spazholio]

I have Modified the NuvoBlack theme (Konttori If you dont mind) To be black with white backgrounds in menus and applications so its now more usable....

For thos interested is in my FTP Server PM me and ill give you the info....
And by the way is a work in progress still not fully polish I am still working on replacing some buttons , etc...

Question for you. I repackaged the NuvoBlack theme as well (link here (http://www.internettablettalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7994)), but I'm having an issue with the scroll buttons looking wonky under Opera (Mozilla is unaffected). I know it's something in the /home/user/.opera/skin/NuvoBlack.zip file, but for the life of me, I don't know what. Did you get around that?

[SeRi@lDiE]

I didnt replace those so I wouldnt know....
By the way I just made a update to my release for those who use mine allready

[Spazholio]

That's weird. All I did was take the original, expand the files, and then repack them. People were complaining that it causes Opera to crash, which I verified. Odd. Oh well.

[maxilogan]

I have a great theme in the making, but I have to make menus to be colored, is this possible?

Really, guess we're all waiting for it, the work in progress is great

[maxilogan]

On the other hand, what's up with the guy who was programming applenvy theme?

It was very nice and polished, but not completely usable in its last release, so I was waiting for it to be ready, but I hear no news from a long time.

I just sent an email to its developer...

http://shrimpdesign.com/applenvy/
http://www.internettablettalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4209

EDIT: I just noticed that there is also the source available on his site. If I do not receive any news or if he says he has no time to proceed with the development, maybe someone of us could do some effort :)

[Frankowitz]

EDIT: I just noticed that there is also the source available on his site. If I do not receive any news or if he says he has no time to proceed with the development, maybe someone of us could do some effort :)

As it's based on the LCARS_PADD theme, it may be next to impossible.
Read what they have to say about the new firmware:

WARNING:These themes have an incompatibility with Nokia's July 6, 2007, software update for N800 (version 4.2007.26-8) which results in the original statusbar and task navigator icons failing to be restored upon uninstallation of a theme. So, pending a workaround, do not install LCARS on the new OS (unless you want to keep it.

More about that here (http://synthesize.us/LCARS_PADD) and here (http://synthesize.us/LCARS_PADD/control_scripts/FAQ).

Doesn't look that good... :(

[phatcat33]

Hey. Do you mean the themes from this location?
http://maemo.lancode.de/?path=./themes
I made some font changes to non-default themes too. But i am waiting for permission to release them. For example i am waiting for permission from author of the excellent plankton-theme.

greetz,
loki

I installed "themes-os07-14pt-0.1-1.deb" because it offers a dark theme. So dark in fact that the statusbar clock and some keyboard features are nearly blacked out. I can get by with those issues since the theme looks so good, but I've found that Opera crashes A LOT when using this theme. :(

BTW: I wasn't sure it would work anyway since I'm using a N770, running OS2006. Thanks!

[ian_ryge]

Themes made with the current version of Theme Maker fail to install on the July 6 firmware because the tar command (provided by busybox version 1.4.1-1osso2.2) won't read the tar files produced by Theme Maker:


dpkg --info NuvoBlack.deb

new debian package, version 2.0.
size 640566 bytes: control archive= 698 bytes.
tar: invalid number ' 12265'
dpkg-deb: subprocess tar returned error exit status 1

Konttori could possibly fix the problem by using a different Java library to create his tar files in a future version of Theme Maker, but all these broken themes would need to be repackaged to work again. It would be much nicer if Nokia would fix the problem by re-adding support for this type of tar file in an updated busybox.

--

As [Applenvy is] based on the LCARS_PADD theme, it may be next to impossible.

The pre-release of Applenvy is actually based on version 1.0.1 of the LCARS theme, which was made with Theme Maker 0.85; it fails to install on the new firmware just like other Theme Maker themes, and could be fixed the same way.

LCARS 2.0 on the other hand - the current version, which fails to uninstall properly on the latest N800 firmware - wasn't packaged with Theme Maker. A Nokia developer suggested that we use dpkg-divert in our install scripts and avoid the need to include copyrighted Nokia files in our packages. Our themes would simply backup the existing graphics from the user's device during the installation. It sounded like a good idea, so we went ahead and packaged our own debs (using GNU tar and ar) for the 2.0 release. It worked great until the latest N800 firmware came out in July with a broken dpkg-divert (caused by a broken awk implementation which, incidentally, is also provided by busybox). Nokia has been made aware of the problems (see Maemo bugs #1628 (https://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1628) and #1637 (https://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1637)) and hopefully they'll resolve them soon.

Here are some handy links from our wiki:
http://synthesize.us/LCARS_PADD/control_scripts/FAQ
http://synthesize.us/HOWTO_make_a_deb_archive

[iball]

Anyone notice two new hildon themes have been released?
They just popped up in my app manager list the other day.

[Xyzo]

Anyone notice two new hildon themes have been released?
They just popped up in my app manager list the other day.
How are they labeled? I'm not able to see them in my list of available applications... Any specific repository?
TIA.

[konttori]

I'm hoping the next firmware release will come soon, as that will address the theme maker theme problem as well.

[Khertan]

It's not a packaging problem ... it s specific with the post process script that use dpkg-divert to save the old theme. But as many know all dpkg tool are broken on the n800 latest firmware ... due to a tar option not supported .... ****ing busybox !

[iball]

It's not a packaging problem ... it s specific with the post process script that use dpkg-divert to save the old theme. But as many know all dpkg tool are broken on the n800 latest firmware ... due to a tar option not supported .... ****ing busybox !

Blame lies solely on Nokia for that error.
Someone on their team didn't do a good job with the BusyBox tools recompile.

[TTgowings]

What and where can we find these 2 mysterious "Hildon" themes you speak of iball ?

[iball]

What and where can we find these 2 mysterious "Hildon" themes you speak of iball ?

Maybe it's from the Nokia Research lab's repository?

To be honest, I have no idea. The maintainer is "Michael Kostrzewa@nokia.com".
It's in a category called "Themes".
Details in the app manager calls the packages:

hildon-theme-chacher 0.2.0-1 (needed by the two themes below)
hildon-theme-plankton 3.1.0-1 (nice blue theme)
hildon-theme-sketchy 3.1.4-1 (bizarre "sketch" theme looks like everything was done in pencil)

I'm on the latest and greatest skype-enabled firmware (v4) running the micro-b beta and the SIP beta and both themes work just fine.
Take note that they both use the default font and icon sizes.

Here's my current sources.list file:

#maemo:name Nokia Catalogue
#maemo:essential
deb http://catalogue.tableteer.nokia.com/certified/ bora user
#maemo:name Nokia Catalogue (3rd party software)
deb http://catalogue.tableteer.nokia.com/non-certified/ bora user
#maemo:name OSSO RTCom Beta
deb http://repository.maemo.org/rtcomm bora free
#maemo:name bora-extras
#deb http://repository.maemo.org/extras bora free non-free
#maemo:name MUlliNER.ORG Maemo Software (Maemo 3.x)
deb http://www.mulliner.org/nokia770/repository/ bora free
#maemo:name Eko
#deb http://eko.one.pl/maemo/ bora user
#maemo:name Maemo Repository
#deb http://repository.maemo.org bora free non-free
#maemo:name Maemo Rep Extras
deb http://repository.maemo.org/extras/ bora free non-free
#maemo:name Wesnoth mirror
#deb http://blackax.net/Pub/wesnoth/ bora user
#maemo:name Nokia Research
deb http://repository.nrcc.noklab.com/ bora extras
#maemo:name Tortoise

[tfinnan]

The two themes that you mentioned have been around for quite a while. 'Plankton' is very nice, and 'Sketchy' is a fun theme for a crazy day. Still, I wish that there were more available...

[Xyzo]

Maybe it's from the Nokia Research lab's repository?


I've added the "noklab" catalogue but these themes still do not appear in my list of available apps: any clue? TIA.

[zeez]

I've added the "noklab" catalogue but these themes still do not appear in my list of available apps: any clue? TIA.

Same here...

[iball]

The two themes that you mentioned have been around for quite a while. 'Plankton' is very nice, and 'Sketchy' is a fun theme for a crazy day. Still, I wish that there were more available...

If they've been around a while why did they suddenly show up?
As you can see, I've not listed any of the older N770 repositories.
They also work pretty flawlessly on the N800 with the new Skype-enabled firmware whereas the older themes were "broken" by the new firmware release with the buggy TAR and DPKG in BusyBox.
Do you know the repos for these themes?

[Xyzo]

Here's my current sources.list file:

#maemo:name Nokia Catalogue
#maemo:essential
deb http://catalogue.tableteer.nokia.com/certified/ bora user
#maemo:name Nokia Catalogue (3rd party software)
deb http://catalogue.tableteer.nokia.com/non-certified/ bora user
#maemo:name OSSO RTCom Beta
deb http://repository.maemo.org/rtcomm bora free
#maemo:name bora-extras
#deb http://repository.maemo.org/extras bora free non-free
#maemo:name MUlliNER.ORG Maemo Software (Maemo 3.x)
deb http://www.mulliner.org/nokia770/repository/ bora free
#maemo:name Eko
#deb http://eko.one.pl/maemo/ bora user
#maemo:name Maemo Repository
#deb http://repository.maemo.org bora free non-free
#maemo:name Maemo Rep Extras
deb http://repository.maemo.org/extras/ bora free non-free
#maemo:name Wesnoth mirror
#deb http://blackax.net/Pub/wesnoth/ bora user
#maemo:name Nokia Research
deb http://repository.nrcc.noklab.com/ bora extras
#maemo:name Tortoise

iball, are you sure you've fully listed your sources.list file? At least a "deb" line seems to be missing at the end: see "Tortoise" for which you don't have any URL. And note that "maemo extras" catalogue appears twice.
Well, I've just tested all of your catalogues by adding the ones which were missing on my own application-manager: no hope, the 2 themes you're mentioning do not appear :confused:
Anyone with better results?

[Texrat]

I could have sworn it was maemo extras...

[Greyghost]

Right...I recall finding them 'right outta the box' so they must have been in one of the 'basic' repos.

I even manged to make a theme using Thememaker before the firmware update. I love the idea of customizing my N800, so it would be nice to see this program return.

[Texrat]

I guarantee new themes will come. You guys are gonna love what's in store. :D

[iball]

I guarantee new themes will come. You guys are gonna love what's in store. :D

Well, right now help us find the plankton and sketch themes!

And any theme or hack or option that will reduce the size of the left-hand "toolbar" will be a blessing.
Nokia needs to consider us "elite" users who might not like what they had in mind with the Hildon GUI.
We're the ones paying them $399 to be their bug testers after all.

[Texrat]

I'm trying!

Plankton is cool. But maybe it was pulled, I dunno...

And I'm not sure if reducing the size of the left bar makes sense, given that people are asking for more touch capability. Of course, a completely revised UI that does away with the bar would be an answer. NOTE: that is sheer uninformed speculation and does not indicate official work in that area.

[Greyghost]

I'm trying!

Plankton is cool. But maybe it was pulled, I dunno...

And I'm not sure if reducing the size of the left bar makes sense, given that people are asking for more touch capability. Of course, a completely revised UI that does away with the bar would be an answer. NOTE: that is sheer uninformed speculation and does not indicate official work in that area.

xlnt!:D

I just looked at my app manager and I can't tell which repo it's from but it's one of the 'basics' I am sure.

Cheers!

[iball]

I'm trying!

Plankton is cool. But maybe it was pulled, I dunno...

And I'm not sure if reducing the size of the left bar makes sense, given that people are asking for more touch capability. Of course, a completely revised UI that does away with the bar would be an answer. NOTE: that is sheer uninformed speculation and does not indicate official work in that area.
My point is, offer the damn option somewhere in the control panel!
Out-of-the-box it's the big left bar by default, but allow those of us that actually have brains in our heads we use to be able to select a checkbox or move a sizing-slider or something to reduce the overall size of the left bar and the top bar.

[Texrat]

Agreed. :)