seth-linux-theme/theme-setup.md

Seth Linux Theme — Full Setup Guide

Dark GNOME desktop theme with black titlebars, square corners, and orange (#D35400) accent. Covers GTK3/4, kitty terminal, and GNOME Shell settings.

What You Get

• GTK3/4: Black headerbars, square window corners, ultra-thin bars (36px), no decorative borders
• Kitty: Borderless terminal with custom status bar (git, CPU, RAM, uptime, clock)
• GNOME: Dark mode, orange accent color, Super+right-drag resize

Prerequisites

• Debian/Ubuntu (or any GNOME-based distro)
• GNOME Shell (tested on GNOME 48)
• kitty terminal (optional — theme works without it)
• git

Quick Install

git clone https://git.sethpc.xyz/Seth/seth-linux-theme.git
cd seth-linux-theme
./install-debian-theme.sh

This installs everything: GTK CSS, kitty theme + Nerd Font, and GNOME settings.

What Each Component Does

GTK CSS (gtk-3.0/gtk.css)

Applied to both GTK3 and GTK4 apps. Overrides:

• Black headerbar background with white text
• 36px min-height headerbars (thinner than default)
• Square window corners (border-radius: 0)
• No CSD decoration borders or shadows
• Transparent headerbar buttons (white text, #222 hover)
• Backdrop state: #999 text/icons, #333 bottom border
• Nautilus sidebar/main headerbar height equalization

Kitty Terminal

See Kitty-setup.md for full details.

• Borderless window
• Custom tab bar with system status
• JetBrainsMono Nerd Font
• F12 toggle for tab bar

GNOME Settings

• color-scheme: prefer-dark
• accent-color: orange
• resize-with-right-button: true (Super+right-drag to resize)
• mouse-button-modifier: Super

Manual Install

1. GTK CSS

mkdir -p ~/.config/gtk-3.0 ~/.config/gtk-4.0
cp gtk-3.0/gtk.css ~/.config/gtk-3.0/gtk.css
cp gtk-3.0/gtk.css ~/.config/gtk-4.0/gtk.css

GTK3 apps pick up changes on next window open. GTK4/libadwaita apps need a full relaunch.

2. Kitty

See Kitty-setup.md.

3. GNOME Settings

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface color-scheme 'prefer-dark'
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface accent-color 'orange'
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.preferences resize-with-right-button true
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.preferences mouse-button-modifier '<Super>'

Files

seth-linux-theme/
├── gtk-3.0/
│   └── gtk.css                 # GTK3/4 headerbar + window CSS
├── kitty/
│   ├── kitty-theme.conf        # Kitty colors, tab bar, keybindings
│   ├── tab_bar.py              # Custom tab bar renderer
│   ├── tab-bar-hide.conf       # Toggle snippet (hide)
│   └── tab-bar-show.conf       # Toggle snippet (show)
├── gnome/
│   └── apply-gnome-settings.sh # GNOME gsettings
├── install.sh                  # Legacy install (home dir target)
├── install-kitty-theme.sh      # Kitty-only install
└── install-debian-theme.sh     # Full theme install (Debian/Ubuntu)

Known Limitations

• Rounded window corners: Mutter hardcodes corner rounding at the compositor level. GTK CSS border-radius: 0 only affects CSD content, not the compositor clipping mask. Removing rounded corners requires a patched Mutter or a shell extension.
• Kitty changes need restart: tab_bar.py, font, and keybinding changes require closing and reopening kitty. Ctrl+Shift+F5 only reloads colors.
• CPU % first draw: Shows "..." on first tab bar draw (needs two /proc/stat samples to compute delta).

Customization

• Accent color: Replace #D35400 in gtk.css, kitty-theme.conf, and tab_bar.py
• Headerbar height: Change min-height: 36px in gtk.css
• Tab bar items: Edit the if is_last: block in tab_bar.py