TUTORIAL: Enable Adwaita Dark Mode on the Librem 5

amarok · July 14, 2022, 8:33pm

A convenient way to enable dark mode.

Find and install Adwaita dark GTK theme:

Find and install GNOME Tweaks:

Tweaks doesn’t (currently) fit the screen unless you run this:

The above command should work with any GNOME app that needs permanent scaling down; just change the package name. Use ...false to turn it off again.

Alternatively, you can use the Displays sub-menu in the Librem 5’s Settings app to scale to different resolutions on an ad hoc basis.

Tap the Tweaks app:

Only landscape view is completely usable (currently)…and the text will be tiny; activate Adwaita-dark in the Themes sub-menu:

Result: (Web):

amarok · July 14, 2022, 9:35pm

Added to: https://source.puri.sm/Librem5/community-wiki/-/wikis/Tips-&-Tricks

irvinewade · July 15, 2022, 6:04am

This might be a silly question but why would you want to enable Adwaita Dark Mode?

Photon · July 15, 2022, 6:41am

It’s just so damned pretty. Easy on the eyes!

Caliga · July 17, 2022, 9:19am

This might be a silly question, but why would you not?

And why, the heck, is it not the default?

gsfs · July 17, 2022, 4:16pm

I’m a fan of dark themes myself, but one good reason to keep the white one would be to be able to reduce the screen brightness more than when using the dark one, especially in daylight, giving you more battery life.
Also, not all the apps are prepared for dark theme, where you could have unreadable black on dark gray text.

irvinewade · July 18, 2022, 4:51am

Taking the question at face value … for a start, if doing so requires a tutorial from @amarok then that might be a reason not to. It might suggest that that level of configurability is not ready for primetime.

But that then would lead to your next question: why is it not the default?

Thermos · November 12, 2022, 7:31am

Did anyone have any issues with this change being reset on reboot? Both methods described set dark mode, but it reverts back to the default light theme when I reboot.