How to install the Adapta GTK theme color pack on Linux
Love the Adapta GTK theme but not happy with the default Cyan color scheme? If so, you may be interested in the Adapta GTK theme color pack. It contains the same great Adapta design, but gives users different color options, such as purple, red, blue, green, orange and many, many others!
Download Adapta GTK theme color pack
Getting the Adapta GTK theme color pack is done through the Gnome-look.org website. However, it is also possible to download the raw source code via GitHub, though this isn’t recommended.
To get your hands on the latest Adapta GTK theme color pack for use in this guide, start by going to its page on Gnome-look.org. Once on the Gnome-look.org page, find the “Files” button and select it to reveal available downloads.
Go through the list and select the “adapta-gtk-theme-colorpack_3.94.0.149.tar.xz” file. Then, click the big blue “Download” button to save it to your Linux PC.
Note: please ignore the DEB packages listed on the Adapta GTK theme color pack page, as they are only relevant to Ubuntu and Debian, and isn’t relevant in this guide.
Once the download of “adapta-gtk-theme-colorpack_3.94.0.149.tar.xz” is complete, open up a terminal window by pressing Ctrl + Alt + T or Ctrl + Shift + T on the keyboard. Then, use the CD command to move the shell from the home directory (~) to the “Downloads” folder.
cd ~/Downloads
Extracting Adapta GTK theme color pack
The Adapta GTK theme color pack is distributed to Linux users via a compressed TarXZ archive. To gain access to the theme files inside of the archive, you must decompress the file. Using the tar command below, extract the contents of “adapta-gtk-theme-colorpack_3.94.0.149.tar.xz”.
tar xvf adapta-gtk-theme-colorpack_3.94.0.149.tar.xz"
Upon extracting the archive, delete the TarXZ archive from the downloads folder using the rm command.
rm adapta-gtk-theme-colorpack_3.94.0.149.tar.xz
Next, create a new folder calledĀ “A Colors.” Creating this folder is necessary, as your “Downloads” directory will be filled with many different files from the color pack, making it hard to sort through.
mkdir -p "A Colors"
Move all of the extracted theme files and folders into “Adapta Colors” using the mv command.
mv Adapta*/ "A Colors"
Move the terminal into the “A Colors” folder using CD.
cd "A Colors"
Installing Adapta GTK theme color pack
Now that the Adapta GTK theme color pack is downloaded and extracted to your Linux PC, the installation can begin. Follow the installation instructions outlined below to get everything set up.
Single-user
Setting up the Adapta GTK theme color pack as a single user means moving one (or all) of the themes included in the decompressed archive into a folder known as “.themes” in your home directory (~).
To start the installation process, create a new directory in the home folder of the user you’re currently logged into with the mkdir command. Keep in mind that some Linux desktops create this folder, so you may already have this directory.
mkdir -p ~/.themes
Once the new “.themes” folder is set up, use the ls command inside of the “A Colors” folder, to see the different Adapta GTK themes included in the color pack.
ls
Look through the ls output and decide on an Adapta theme you’d like to install as a single user. Then, enter the command below to make it happen.
mv Adapta-ColorĀ ~/.themes/
Alternatively, install every single theme included in the pack as a single user by running this command.
mv Adapta-* ~/.themes/
System-wide
If you want all the users on your Linux system to have access to the Adapta GTK theme color pack, install system-wide. To do this, start by running the ls command. Ls will show an output of all of the themes in the “A Color” directory.
ls
Look through the output of ls and choose a theme you’d like to install from the color pack. Then, use the command below to make it happen.
sudo mv Adapta-Color /usr/share/themes/
Or, if you prefer to make every single theme included in the pack available to everyone, install with the following command.
sudo mv Adapta-* /usr/share/themes/
Activate Adapta GTK theme color pack on Linux
Installing the Adapta GTK theme color pack on Linux won’t make it the default skin for your Linux PC. Instead, you’ll need to go through the system settings on your desktop environment and change it for that to happen.
To change the default GTK theme on Linux to one of the many themes in the Adapta GTK color pack, launch system settings. After the settings area is open, look for “Appearance,” or “Theme” and select one of the Adapta color themes in the list.
Are you having a hard time figuring out how to switch the default GTK theme on your Linux desktop environment? Don’t worry! We’ve got your back! Look through the list below for in-depth instructions about how to switch the default desktop environment theme!
