How can I change the white background in the file manager?

I would like to change the white background of my file manager. (I really searched everywhere and tried a lot of things.)

I was trying to change CSS files of my theme (GTK2 & GTK3 folders) and I tried others themes too, but no luck so far.

I wish to change the "eye-killing" white to grey, In Windows you could just change that easily with the theme changer.

In Xubuntu (I'm using XFCE), this seems impossible.I switched back to Ubuntu, but there I couldn't change this, even they’re using same principles.

Could anyone give me a hint where I change this annoying white background?

Thanks in advance.

Solution 1:

You can try to change the "gtk_color_scheme" (gtk-2) or "default color scheme"(gtk-3) defined in the "gtkrc" or "gtk.css" files of your theme.

AS vasa1 explains in this answer, there are advantages to keep the themes in you ~/.themes folder.
Because will be user-specific and not system-wide and you do not need sudo to edit them.

Here you have an example.

In this case I'm running Xubuntu 13.04 with the default them "Greybird".
I only edit the gtkrc file (gtk-2) because Thunar (As far as I know) is a gtk-2 application.

1) Open a Terminal window and type:

• sudo mousepad /usr/share/themes/Greybird/gtk-2.0/gtkrc

Search for the line nuber 6, and change the base_color from #fcfcfc to #CECECE

BEFORE:

gtk_color_scheme = "bg_color:#CECECE\nselected_bg_color:#398ee7\nbase_color:#fcfcfc" # Background, base.

AFTER:

gtk_color_scheme = "bg_color:#CECECE\nselected_bg_color:#398ee7\nbase_color:#CECECE" # Background, base.

2) Logout and Login to see the changes.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Also you can edit the file gtk.css for the (gtk-3) applications.

• sudo mousepad /usr/share/themes/Greybird/gtk-3.0/gtk.css

You can change the @define-color base_color from #fcfcfc to #CECECE

NOTE: This is just an example, please change the settings according to your needs.

Hope it helps.

Solution 2:

I found a great answer in another post How do I change to a theme not listed in the Appearance screen?

oh, and this still applies to ubuntu 16.04, which I have running...

just install gnome-tweak-tool and my newly installed dark themes were there (or whatever non-white bkgd themes you choose to install), they apply to thunar, nautilus, system monitor bkgds...... phew.....