Configuration

Aurora’s packages (see Installation) do not modify Debian’s default configuration files automatically. To be able to activate the themes provided by Aurora, you will have to manually modify the appropriate configuration files in the system.

Installer

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GRUB 2

Aurora installs a splash image for grub in /usr/share/images/grub/. To use this image, GRUB settings need to be updated to change the value of the background image and font colors:

  1. Open /usr/share/desktop-base/grub_background.sh.

  2. Update it to look like this:

    WALLPAPER=/usr/share/images/grub/aurora-640x480.png
COLOR_NORMAL=white/black
COLOR_HIGHLIGHT=yellow/black

  3. Save your changes.

Icon theme

Aurora’s icon themes are installed in /usr/share/icons/. Two icon themes are provided: aurora and aurora-light. The former is a dark theme for light desktops; the latter is a light theme for dark desktops.

Note that Aurora’s desktop themes depend on these icon themes. This means Aurora icon themes must be installed for the desktop themes to work correctly.

None of the icon themes provided is a completely new theme. They inherit almost all icons from the default gnome icon theme, except the branding, which is replaced to use gNewSense’s.

To make any of the icon themes the system’s default, set GConf /desktop/gnome/interface/icon_theme to the name of the icon theme, e.g. "aurora".

End users of the system should be able to change the theme from Applications ‣ System Tools ‣ Advanced Settings.

GNOME Desktop

GDM3 theme

Aurora installs the following files to change the defaults used by Debian for the GNOME login screen:

  • /usr/share/pixmaps/gnewsense-shell-greeter.svg: gNewSense logo image used in the login screen when the user computer can render the GNOME Shell.
  • /usr/share/pixmaps/gnewsense-fallback-greeter.svg: gNewSense logo image used in the login screen when the user computer cannot render the GNOME Shell.
  • /usr/share/backgrounds/aurora/aurora-wide.svg: background image to replace the debian background used in session login and lock screens (User ‣ Lock Screen).

To use the files above you have to modify GDM3’s greeter.gsettings file:

  1. Open /etc/gdm3/greeter.gsettings. This file contains the options for the greeter session (login screen).

  2. Look for the # Theming options section and update the desktop background as follows:

    [org.gnome.desktop.background]
picture-uri='file:///usr/share/backgrounds/aurora/aurora-wide.svg'

  3. Look for the # Login manager options section and update the logos as follows:

    [org.gnome.login-screen]
logo='/usr/share/pixmaps/gnewsense-shell-greeter.svg'
fallback-logo='/usr/share/pixmaps/gnewsense-fallback-greeter.svg'

  4. Save your changes.

Additionally, overwrite the image used by Debian in the session lock screen (to-do: find a configuration file to set this image):

# cp /usr/share/backgrounds/aurora/aurora-wide.svg /usr/share/images/desktop-base/joy-wallpaper_1920x1200.svg

GNOME theme

Aurora’s desktop theme for GNOME is installed in /usr/share/themes/Aurora. To make this theme the system’s default, set GConf /desktop/gnome/interface/gtk_theme to "Aurora".

End users of the system should be able to change the theme from Applications ‣ System Tools ‣ Advanced Settings. Background images can be changed from User ‣ System Settings ‣ Background.