Can Qt Applications Look Good Under Xfce 4?

[Charlie.]

Last night, I achieved some success getting Xfce 4 up and running on my Gentoo box. It's awesome! I even got Firefox 3.0.1 running nicely (USE="... -xulrunner ..." FTW.)

There's one problem: I need to use some Qt applications (specifically Amarok and qGo) on my desktop and they look awful.

What should I do to make Qt applications look decent under Xfce 4?

I have heard of a project called "QGtkTheme" or just "GtkTheme". What's up with that? Will it do this for me? If so, how can I install it?

(I tried to pull the ebuild from http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=222775 into my local portage overlay, I got "masked by CORRUPTION". I think my Manifest file was right.)

Popular opinion says QGtkTheme only works with Qt 4.3 and up. (Preferably Qt 4.4 and up.) Will it work with apps built against Qt 3? I ask because I have emerged Qt 4.3.3 with qt3support and emerging qGo still tries to emerge Qt 3.3.8. (I have USE="... -qt3 qt4 qt3support ...") Obviously, it has a dependency on Qt 3 specifically.

Then there's the Amarok "no audio devices" issue... but that's another thread.

[keenblade]

What should I do to make Qt applications look decent under Xfce 4?

If you really want the eye candy destop use;

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x11-wm/compiz-fusion

Compiz-fusion with xfce4 works perfect here.

[slackline]

What should I do to make Qt applications look decent under Xfce 4?

If you really want the eye candy destop use;

Code: Select all

x11-wm/compiz-fusion

Compiz-fusion with xfce4 works perfect here.

Thats not really what he's asking. Compiz-fusion does fancy window decorations and desktop switching (it is after all a window manager).

To me it sounds as though Charlie doesn't like the way Qt applications have their own grey colour and font theme under Xfce4.

Unfortunately there are only two Qt apps I use (under Xfce4) and have never bothered sorting this out.

A quick search suggests there are some solutions...

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* x11-themes/gtk-engines-qt
* x11-themes/gtk-engines-qtcurve
* x11-themes/gtk-engines-qtpixmap
* x11-themes/qtcurve
* x11-themes/qtcurve-qt4

...but most of these though allow GTK+ applications to use Qt themes and I'm not aware of anything that does the reverse.

Sorry I couldn't be more helpful,

slack

[Charlie.]

Why does everyone suggest compiz as a solution to absolutely everything desktop-related? Seriously - without an nVidia graphics card, you can't even use it. (Don't try to tell me that the ATI fglrx drivers work - they don't ... at least 99% of the time.)

Thanks slack---line, but I have already seen those packages. None will work. gtk-engines-qt is used to make GTK apps look acceptable under KDE, not the reverse.

Theoretically, I could convert both my GTK theme and Qt theme to "Curve" so that they match. This isn't really a solution, however. It's more like a work-around.

Any more info on QGtkStyle?

[keenblade]

Why does everyone suggest compiz as a solution to absolutely everything desktop-related?

Sorry, It seems I did not get what you want as slack---line pointed.
So you can try the ebuild

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x11-themes/qgtkstyle

at gimpel overlay. It may just work for you. I believe it is more up to date than the one you have tried at bugzilla.

[.johnny]

As far as I know, qt3support USE flag doesn't allow old qt3 apps to use qt4. (I have read somewhere, if I recall correctly, that qt3support in qt4 allows easy porting from qt3 to qt4 - but it still requires changes in application).

I have installed QGtkStyle and it works pretty well, but only with some qt4 apps. E.g. QtDesigner and Picard look almost like native GTK apps, but Skype does not use it. And qt3 apps (Opera 9.51, VirtualBox) don't use QGtkStyle as well. (It is possible, however, that I have messed something, because I have installed also kcontrol and some KDE stuff).

Here's a screenshot. Picard is a qt4 application. Fonts are rendered slightly different in QGtkStyle, but overall it works nice.

[Charlie.]

Then I must try port qGo to KDE 4. Perhaps it is doable. Perhaps it isn't. If I manager, I will send in the patch.

BTW - without kcontrol, how do you set QGtkStyle as your Qt "engine" once you have built and installed it?

Then again, how did you get it installed? Could I get your ebuild files, please?

[didl]

Have you tried using qtconfig to adjust your themes/fonts/...?
All my qt apps look great in fluxbox.

[widremann]

Why does everyone suggest compiz as a solution to absolutely everything desktop-related? Seriously - without an nVidia graphics card, you can't even use it. (Don't try to tell me that the ATI fglrx drivers work - they don't ... at least 99% of the time.)

Works fine for me on my X300 with open source drivers. It's only slightly slower than a non-composited desktop. Then again, I'm using the git X.org instead of the portage one.

Thanks slack---line, but I have already seen those packages. None will work. gtk-engines-qt is used to make GTK apps look acceptable under KDE, not the reverse.

Theoretically, I could convert both my GTK theme and Qt theme to "Curve" so that they match. This isn't really a solution, however. It's more like a work-around.

Any more info on QGtkStyle?

Honestly, QtCurve is the best solution. It has native GTK+, Qt3 and Qt4 theme packages. But it uses the same settings for all three so your apps will look alike. Unlike gtk-engines-qt, it doesn't actually suck. The downside is that you have to like the QtCurve theme. The nice thing, though, is that it is massively configurable (from within KDE3's control center) and I personally find it to look pretty nice.

[.johnny]

BTW - without kcontrol, how do you set QGtkStyle as your Qt "engine" once you have built and installed it?

Then again, how did you get it installed? Could I get your ebuild files, please?

As didl says, you can set theme in qtconfig. When QGtkStyle is installed, it appears as "GTK".

I installed it from the ebuild posted on bugzilla (the same bug you mentioned in the first post, an ebuild posted by Mateusz Renkiewicz). I remember I also had "masked by corruption" but I forgot to do "ebuild ... digest". Having no experience with using local overlay, I followed this HOWTO and eventually it worked.

Edit: now I tried to rebuild this package. The bad news is that the newest source from SVN doesn't compile on my box. Perhaps it is because I have qt 4.3 and not 4.4.

[i92guboj]

This thread is getting way offtopic, and only a few really relevant bits have been commented.

There's one problem: I need to use some Qt applications (specifically Amarok and qGo) on my desktop and they look awful.

To set the style for kde applications use kcontrol, to set the style of pure-qt applications (which is not the same as kde applications) use qtconfig. It's that easy. Install all the kde styles you want, and set them using the relevant tool. Compiz is not a medicine for everything, but a completely different dissease. It's not the topic, so, please, stay on topic (not aimed to anyone personally).

What should I do to make Qt applications look decent under Xfce 4?

You can install any qt style you like better, however, if you want consistency across gtk and qt appplications like someone said above, the choice is clear: use gtk-engines-qtcurve for gtk applications, and qtcurve for kde applications. It has a style for kde3, for kde4, and for gtk2.x, and all of them are maintained and look almost identical. It's very complete and configurable, and it can look as shinny or simple as you want.

There's also gtk-engines-qt, which is something that can use any qt style on gtk applications. But I preffer a native solution like qtcurve, and anyone, gtk-engines-qt is not perfect and has some problems.

(I tried to pull the ebuild from http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=222775 into my local portage overlay, I got "masked by CORRUPTION". I think my Manifest file was right.)

Obviously, something in the ebuild dir was not, you can redo the manifest however, using "ebuild <whatever>.ebuild manifest".

Popular opinion says QGtkTheme only works with Qt 4.3 and up. (Preferably Qt 4.4 and up.) Will it work with apps built against Qt 3? I ask because I have emerged Qt 4.3.3 with qt3support and emerging qGo still tries to emerge Qt 3.3.8. (I have USE="... -qt3 qt4 qt3support ...") Obviously, it has a dependency on Qt 3 specifically.

Qt3 apps will not work on qt4, nor vice-versa, just like gtk2 apps can't compiled on qt3. Qt3 and qt4 are esentially different toolkits, even if they have a common root. Qt3support will not help either, it doesn't magically allow qt3 apps to compile against qt4, so the style (which basically is another qt4 application) will not work either for a qt3 program. Qt3-support just eases the porting, but you still need to update the source code for it to compile against it.

[Charlie.]

Thanks, all. I think my path is clear. I couldn't work on this last night because I was polishing a dance floor with my feet at the University of Cape Town. With a sore back and too much tiredness (thanks, Passo Doblé) I then proceeded to play Go until early this morning. Argh, Tuesdays are long.

Back on topic...

Tonight, this is what I plan to do: First, I will get ALSA working beautifully (Off topic), emerge Amarok with Qt 4, emerge QGtkStyle, enable it with QtConfig and plug some tracks with the worlds best audio-player.

Once that is done, I will check out the qGo source tree and try to compile it under Qt 4. Hacking will be required. It might be impossible. I can't say until I've seen the source. If I succeed, I will create a patch and submit it to that project.

qGo isn't a huge project since Go players aren't thick on the ground. Chances are the dev(s) are just too busy to bother porting to Qt 4 or haven't seen a need for it. I might get lucky. Certainly, I haven't read any reports of failed attempts.

.johnny: thanks for that HOWTO link. I will surely consult it.

keenblade: thanks for the overlay reference.

i92guboj: you answered my next question before I answered it by including the manifest creating line - thank you. As the OP, I don't think the thread is getting off-topic. I think that most of my questions have been answered nicely, without grey areas.

Conclusions:
1. Qt 4 apps can look good on Gtk... if QGtkStyle is used and enabled.
2. Qt 3 apps will not use QGtkStyle.
3. qtconfig is used to enable QGtkStyle. It appears as "GTK".

I will report my findings.

[MalleRIM]

Skype does not use it.

Are you on 64bits? If so, it does not work, because you have no 32bit version installed. I would try to get it running somehow then.

[RMX]

When I select GTK theme in qtconfig, I get "QGtkStyle cannot be used together with the GTK_Qt engine." in terminal and it just shows me clearlooks theme.