[Solved] Scrollbar hardly visible: GTK2 program in XFCE 4.16 and Port 5.0 or 5.0.1 and standard dark theme

[Rava]

When running a GTK2 program instead of its GTK3 variant XFCE 4.16 and Port 5.0 or 5.0.1 using the dark theme "Adwaita-dark" the scrollbar of any window is hardly visible.

Here the GTK3 version of interlink (interlink-52.9.8194.linux-x86_64-gtk3_en_UK_rava_ln-interlink-bin.xzm), I zoomed into an email so that its content cannot be fully displayed, creating a highly visible scrollbar on the right and on the bottom:


And this is the same version of Interlink, but its GTK2 variant (interlink-52.9.8194.linux-x86_64-gtk2_en_UK_rava_ln-interlink-bin.xzm), same Email, same zoom level, but the scrollbars on the right and bottom are hardly visible:


Here is a zoomed in screenshot of Palemoon-32.4.1.linux-x86_64-gtk2 enhanced using Unsharp Mask:

By using that level of zoom and enhancing the screenshot with Unsharp Mask the scrollbar and the background are distinguishable. The scrollbar ends approx below the ")" of the text above.

But without that level of ridiculous zoom (that would be highly impractical) the scrollbar is hardly to be seen.


Any idea why that is? How can it be fixed?

I have the extra module libgtk+libgdk-x11-2.0.so.0.2400.33.xzm loaded, could that module be causing the issue?
(I wonder if that module is even necessary in Port 5.0.1, I needed it for at least one of my programs in Port 5.0)

But like I wrote above: the issue is also present in Port 5.0, it is not an 5.0.1 issue.

Update solved via this post:
Scrollbar hardly visible: GTK2 program in XFCE 4.16 and Port 5.0 or 5.0.1 and standard dark theme (Post by ncmprhnsbl #96345)
and reported what I added to my system in this post
Scrollbar hardly visible: GTK2 program in XFCE 4.16 and Port 5.0 or 5.0.1 and standard dark theme (Post by Rava #96346)

[fulalas]

Have you tried in Always Fresh?

Does ISO Master (which is GTK2) also suffer?

[Rava]

Have you tried in Always Fresh?

Kinda, the system says (I paraphrase here) "I do not use /changes/ so changes will not be saved and be kept in memory only".

Does ISO Master (which is GTK2) also suffer?

Yes. It is a bit better visible compared to Palemoon or Interlink, but still the very similar to each other "middle-grey" bar to "middle-grey" background.


Maybe the visibility of isomaster is better because the "middle-grey" bar to "middle-grey" background is not at the very border of my screen as is the case with a maximized Palemoon window?

Is it possible to tweak Adwaita-dark to get it like so

(this is an edited screenshot (not reflecting my desktop colours reality but my wish it would look like so) - I used the same colour for the bar as in the above GTK3-screenshot of Interlink: https://abload.de/img/gtk3-code-scrollbalkhyewb.webp )

Added in 55 minutes 16 seconds:
maybe this helps. When starting isomaster from the terminal it gave me lots of these errors:

(isomaster:6572): Gtk-WARNING **: 02:12:34.355: Unable to locate theme engine in module_path: "adwaita",

(isomaster:6572): Gtk-WARNING **: 02:12:34.355: Unable to locate theme engine in module_path: "pixmap",

[ncmprhnsbl]

isomaster:6572): Gtk-WARNING **: 02:12:34.355: Unable to locate theme engine in module_path: "adwaita",

yes, this.
presumably, /usr/lib64/gtk-2.0/engines/libadwaita.so was stripped from the 64bit build of xfce-4.16 (it was part of the package: gnome-themes-standard)
to fix, grab (now called) gnome-themes-extra from slackware extract it, and grab /usr/lib64/gtk-2.0/engines/libadwaita.so, make module of it or add it to an existing module.

[Rava]

^
I presume this https://slackware.uk/slackware/slackwar ... 6_64-3.txz is the correct version, since both P5.0 and P5.01 are based on Slackware 15.0.

I will tweak my 003-xfce-4.16 module by adding /usr/lib64/gtk-2.0/engines/libadwaita.so since I deem that the best place for a missing dependency when it concerns my DE.

Code: Select all

root@rava:/# ls -o /usr/lib64/gtk-2.0/engines/libadwaita.so
/bin/ls: cannot access '/usr/lib64/gtk-2.0/engines/libadwaita.so': No such file or directory
root@rava:/# ls -o /usr/lib64/gtk-2.0/engines/
/bin/ls: cannot access '/usr/lib64/gtk-2.0/engines/': No such file or directory
root@rava:/# ls -o /usr/lib64/gtk-2.0/
total 0
drwxr-xr-x   3 root  30 2021-02-13 07:13 .
drwxr-xr-x 110 root 120 2023-10-10 19:20 ..
drwxr-xr-x   2 root  39 2021-02-13 07:13 modules

Seems not a single /gtk-2.0/engines/ is available.

Of course, first I test it via starting isomaster anew after I added /usr/lib64/gtk-2.0/engines/libadwaita.so manually into my live system.
Then I also start Palemoon and Interlink anew. And when the issue is fixed in all programs, only then I will add /usr/lib64/gtk-2.0/engines/libadwaita.so to my 003-xfce-4.16 module.

And make myself a big fat yellow-on-black note for when there are updates (e.g. a new 003-xfce for P5.01 - or P5.02 or even P5.1) that I have to also tweak my then updated 003-xfce.

Added in 13 minutes 18 seconds:
Okay, the path to the library according to the package is:
/usr/lib64/gtk-2.0/2.10.0/engines/libadwaita.so
Should I use the path as in the gnome-themes-extra-3.28-x86_64-3.txz package, or the path you, fulalas, named?
To be put into
/usr/lib64/gtk-2.0/engines/libadwaita.so
or into
/usr/lib64/gtk-2.0/2.10.0/engines/libadwaita.so

UpdatE
I put it into /usr/lib64/gtk-2.0/2.10.0/engines/libadwaita.so and the error message about libadwaita vanished when starting isomaster.

The bad news: the issue with the scrollbar is the same: the same middle-grey bar on middle-grey-background.
The error that remains:

Code: Select all

guest@rava:/$ isomaster 

(isomaster:19020): Gtk-WARNING **: 20:12:51.566: Unable to locate theme engine in module_path: "pixmap",

meaning putting the lib into /usr/lib64/gtk-2.0/2.10.0/engines/ must have been the correct choice.

Added in 57 seconds:


Added in 1 minute 7 seconds:
For now, I will not change my 003-xfce since adding the lib into the live system did not solve the bar-on-background issue.

[ncmprhnsbl]

meaning putting the lib into /usr/lib64/gtk-2.0/2.10.0/engines/ must have been the correct choice.

yeah, sorry, i gave the wrong path
but.. it just checked the gtk2 bundle that's on the server, and it includes both libadwaita.so and libpixmap.so .
so, i suggest using that.
Bundles in the system menu or in terminal type 'bundles'.

[Rava]

Code: Select all

guest@rava:/Porteus_modules$ bundles --help
 Starting checks ... 
[ERROR] You need to be root to run this script

Why does bundles only work for root? All is does is downloading?

Added in 6 minutes 20 seconds:
Copied its /usr/lib64/gtk-2.0/2.10.0/engines/libpixmap.so into my system and started isomaster:

Code: Select all

guest@rava:/$ isomaster 
Quitting
guest@rava:/$ 

No error message, and the scrollbar looks like in GTK3. Thanks a lot fulalas, now tweaking my 003-xfce-4.16 module.

Added in 8 minutes 47 seconds:
[Solved] Scrollbar hardly visible: GTK2 program in XFCE 4.16 and Port 5.0 or 5.0.1 and standard dark theme
That added a mere 16KB to my 003-xfce-4.16 module (as in: 16384 bytes )
I can live with that.

Added in 19 minutes 27 seconds:
[Solved] Scrollbar hardly visible: GTK2 program in XFCE 4.16 and Port 5.0 or 5.0.1 and standard dark theme
One thing slightly weird:
gtk-2-Interlink shows the now corrected highly distinguishable scroll bar without having to restart it, but gtk-2-Palemoon doesn't.

I report back in here when I restarted PM.
And if PM still misbehaves, I will start it via guest terminal to see if it displays some errors.

Added in 6 minutes :
[Solved] Scrollbar hardly visible: GTK2 program in XFCE 4.16 and Port 5.0 or 5.0.1 and standard dark theme
I started PM as root and the scrollbar was at it should be: I presume PM needs a restart for the changes to be visible, unlike Interlink.

[Rava]

Update 2
Now I restarted user guest version of Palemoon [as in: I used "killall palemoon" and clicked on restore everything when asked, of course all my Private windows are now gone], and it is as I presumed it would be after I already ran Palemoon as root and saw the correct rendering of the scrollbars.
Now in guest Palemoon the scrollbars also looks like they should be. Thanks again fulalas, you are the best.

[donald]

my 2 cents

Here you see the tree of my gtk2-debs-x86_64.xzm module for porteus 5.01-x86_64-XFCE

Code: Select all

gtk2-debs-x86_64
└── usr
    └── lib64
        ├── gtk-2.0
        │   └── 2.10.0
        │       └── engines
        │           ├── libadwaita.so
        │           └── libpixmap.so
        ├── libgdk-x11-2.0.so.0 -> libgdk-x11-2.0.so.0.2400.33
        ├── libgdk-x11-2.0.so.0.2400.33
        ├── libgtk-x11-2.0.so.0 -> libgtk-x11-2.0.so.0.2400.33
        └── libgtk-x11-2.0.so.0.2400.33

5 directories, 6 files

With this module activated, e.g. gcolor2, mtpaint-3.40, sylpheed-3.7.0 and many more
are running without any problems like:
ldd /usr/bin/<prog name> | grep -i not; or 'GTK Warnings' when run from terminal.

[Rava]

or 'GTK Warnings' when run from terminal.

That means the stupid 'GTK Warnings' in viewnior could be gone?
But maybe not, since they happen in a GTK3 viewnior as well, I only recently switched to GTK 2 viewnior.


This is from my 021-libgtk+libgdk-x11-2.0.so.0.2400.33.xzm

Code: Select all

└── usr
    └── lib64
        ├── libgdk-x11-2.0.so -> libgdk-x11-2.0.so.0.2400.33
        ├── libgdk-x11-2.0.so.0 -> libgdk-x11-2.0.so.0.2400.33
        ├── libgdk-x11-2.0.so.0.2400.33
        ├── libgtk-x11-2.0.so -> libgtk-x11-2.0.so.0.2400.33
        ├── libgtk-x11-2.0.so.0 -> libgtk-x11-2.0.so.0.2400.33
        └── libgtk-x11-2.0.so.0.2400.33