Lubuntu 24.10: Please offer ‘Cleanlooks’ with Qt6 as Widget Style Qt Style

ralf3u · November 6, 2024, 8:24am

According to In Appearance in Widget Style the Qt Style "Cleanlooks" does not exist any more after a system upgrade · Issue #2628 · lxqt/lxqt · GitHub cleanlooks does not exist any more in Widget Style, Qt Style. It is because qt5-style-plugin-cleanlooks is using Qt5 while LXQt 2.0.0 uses Qt6.

I tried in the terminal:
sudo apt -y install qt6-style-plugin-cleanlooks
It didn’t work.

Could you please offer cleanlooks with Qt6?

Remark
The qt-style cleanlooks is important because on an eink-display in text-mode cleanlooks is the best way to see in the file-manager PCManFM-Qt which tab has focus while I still can read the other tab-titles. Other qt-styles in combination with different lxqt-themes unfortunately don’t offer this good behavior like cleanlooks.

Fritz · November 11, 2024, 4:02am

After your recent Lubuntu update to 24.10, the desktop was upgraded also (to LXQt 2.0). This version of LXQt is based on an upgraded version of its underlying framework (now Qt6). The first ever version of Lubuntu with the LXQt desktop (18.10) used LXQt 0.13 and Qt5. And yes, cleanlooks was still offered (if installed).

As I see it now, the cleanlooks style was already a thing of the past when Qt moved from version 4 to version 5. Style ‘Fusion’ was introduced as a modernised version. At the time cleanlooks and some other old styles were not offered by default, but still could be used.

See the following link for some background (it is a bit technical, but it explains it well): C++ API changes | Qt 5.15

I don’t have a personal recollection of using cleanlooks on earlier versions of LXQt, but I’ve got curious, and quickly installed Lubuntu 20.04 in a virtual machine, added the cleanlooks style, and was surprised.

Suprised negatively, because of its old fashioned looks. Clearly Qt5 is much more refined with the offered Fusion or Breeze styles (in LXQt 1). Now LXQt 2 / Qt6 and the kvantum style is again a big step forward (as I see it, sic).

I’ve also installed LibreOffice on my test Lubuntu 20.04 VM, and could only see minor differences in the screen-layout in Calc.

My conclusion would be that there could be absolutely no reason in the world why someone would like to stick with cleanlooks. However…de gustatibus non disputandum. Although, eInk is perhaps a good reason.

If you persist, Lubuntu 24.04 LTS will be supported until April 2027 so you have a few more years to enjoy cleanlooks, but I urge you to stay with the hurd, and move on to kvantum. Its worth it.

Fritz · November 11, 2024, 4:31am

I found something interesting about making your own themes with the Kvantum SVG-based theme engine for Qt: Kvantum/Kvantum at master · tsujan/Kvantum · GitHub

Clearly, this is for skilled technicians (who also love to make nice things).

I suggest you just drop your very specific request in a forum group related to kvantum. I guess you will not be the only eInk user with this demand.

Perhaps a dedicated eInk-theme will be created if you ask for it nicely

ralf3u · November 19, 2024, 9:34am

I think that in Lubuntu 24.04 I could install kvantum with some commands without PPA. Since Lubuntu 24.10, according to Kvantum/Kvantum/INSTALL.md at master · tsujan/Kvantum · GitHub, it seems to be that kvantum can be installed only with PPA.

Is there still a possibility to install kvantum without PPA?

Fritz · November 20, 2024, 3:16am

The article you refer to is about installing it from source, and seems to be written specific for Qt6 based LXQt’s (2.1+).

I think you can just install it on older versions using apt, I searched for it quikly on a live-22.04 running at Distrosea.com:

$ apt search kvantum | grep kvantum

gives qt5-style-kvantum (binaries, internationalisation and theme packages).

ralf3u · November 21, 2024, 9:48pm

I installed kvantum.

In Change/Delete Themes I selected KvArcYaru. So now there is a underline on the focused tab in PCManFM-Qt, something what I was looking for.
In Configure Active Theme, in Miscellaneous I activated Left aligned tabs.

The only two things what I miss in PCManFM-Qt is:

If I click in the menu on Edit there is no small border any more around all the items.
If I select an item of Edit, like Copy, then the font does not change to white and the background does not change to dark.

Do you know who is the author of KvArcYaru to ask if a eInk theme could be created?

Fritz · November 22, 2024, 6:59am

Perhaps you can find what you want here:

ralf3u · November 24, 2024, 11:15pm

The reference in your last comment prompted me to open this topic:

github.com/GabePoel/KvYaru-Colors

Add to kvantum the theme "eInk"

opened 09:34PM - 22 Nov 24 UTC

ralf3u

After the installation of Lubuntu, when using the file-manager PCManFM-Qt on a e…Ink-display I have difficulties to detect which tab has focus. Thanks to kvantum and the theme KvArcYaru I can see right away which tab has focus because the focused tab is underlined. But in the theme KvArcYaru there are three issues on a eInk-display: - If one click in PCManFM-QWt in the menu for example on `Edit` there is no small border around all the items. The best would be if there would be a small border around all the items. - If one click in PCManFM-QWt in the menu for example on `Edit`, then the focused item of the list does not change its behavior in a clear visible form. The best would be if the background becomes black and the font becomes white of the focused item. - The tab-titles of unfocused tabs are still bold. The best would be if the tab-titles of unfocused tabs are not bold. So, only the focused tab should have a bold tab-title. In the current theme `KvGnome` the two first issues do not exist, so it is possible to solve at least the two first the issues. The realization of the third issue makes only sense if while tab-browsing there is no move of the tabs (it could be that while tab-browsing because of the change of the tab-titles from bold to not bold the tabs are moving a little bit, what would be too disturbing). In the near future eInk-displays will become more popular. So, what about the idea to add an `eInk` theme by solving the three issues above? The theme KvArcYaru could be used as base. **Remark** In the current theme `KvGnome` the first two things from above are solved, but: - In the tool bar, the symbol for compact view that is active has unfortunately not any more a black border but a black background that is too intense. - In the location bar, the current file has unfortunately not any more a black border but a black background that is too intense. **Annotation** Thank you so much for the theme KvArcYaru.

Thank you for the hint.