How to install the BaZik GTK theme on Linux
The BaZik GTK theme is a Mac-like take on the ever-popular Material Design look made by Google. The theme is white, with Apple-style window controls and six different color variants, like yellow, orange, purple, pink, green, and red. BaZik makes an excellent theme for those who are a fan of Material Design and want a fresh take on the concept. Here’s how to get it working on your system.
Downloading BaZik
BaZik is a theme pack and comes with many different variations and colors. Colors include dark blue, dark green, dark magenta, dark orange, dark red, dark yellow. It also has many different light themes, like light blue, light red, etc.
To get your hands on the many different BaZik themes available, head over to Gnome-look.org, click on the “Files” tab and follow the instructions below.
Dark Blue
Want the Dark Blue BaZik theme? Download Bazik_Dark_Blue.tar.xz.
Dark Green
To get the Dark Green BaZik theme, download Bazik_Dark_Green.tar.xz.
Dark Magenta
For the Dark Magenta BaZik theme, grab the Bazik_Dark_Magenta.tar.xz archive from the Gnome-look page.
Dark Orange
For the Dark Orange theme, you will need to download the Bazik_Dark_Orange.tar.xz archive.
Dark Red
Like Dark Red? Grab Bazik_Dark_Red.tar.xz.
Dark Yellow
A fan of Dark Yellow? Download Bazik_Dark_Yellow.tar.xz.
Light Blue
Looking forward to Light Blue? Grab Bazik_Light_Blue.tar.xz.
Light Green
Love Light Green? Download Bazik_Light_Green.tar.xz to your computer.
Light Magenta
To experience the Light Magenta version of BaZik, you must download Bazik_Light_Magenta.tar.xz.
Light Orange
Thinking about Light Orange? Go to the Files section and download Bazik_Light_Orange.tar.xz.
Light Red
Light Red sounding good on your Linux desktop? Download Bazik_Light_Red.tar.xz.
Light Yellow
To get the Light Yellow theme, you must download Bazik_Light_Yellow.tar.xz.
Extracting BaZik
Now that you’ve downloaded one of the many BaZik theme archives available on Gnome-look.org, it is time to start the extraction process, as it is not possible to install GTK themes on Linux without extracting them.
Thankfully, to extract XZ archives on Linux, no additional software needs to be installed, as Tar is a heavily used tool on many Linux operating systems. To start the extraction process, open up a terminal window by pressing Ctrl + Alt + T or Ctrl + Shift + T.
With the terminal window open, use the CD command to move from the home directory (~) into the “Downloads” directory where your BaZik theme archive file is.
cd ~/Downloads
Once inside of the “Downloads” directory, use the tar command to extract the contents of the XZ archive file.
tar xvf Bazik_*.tar.xz
No matter if you’ve downloaded a BaZik Dark or BaZik Light theme, the command above will extract it thanks to the wildcard function (*). When the extraction is complete, it will create a folder in your downloads directory with either Bazik_Dark_COLOR or Bazik_Light_COLOR.
Please understand that “COLOR” stands for the theme color in the filename. For example, if you downloaded BaZik Dark Red, the folder name would be Bazik_Dark_Red, etc.
Installing BaZik
Now that the BaZik XZ archive file is fully extracted, the installation can begin. In this guide, we will go over two installation methods: System-wide, which makes the theme fully available to all Linux users and single-user, which only allows one user access. To start the installation, follow the instructions below.
System-wide
To install the BaZik theme as a system-wide theme, start by moving the terminal to the “Downloads” directory with the CD command.
cd ~/Downloads
Inside of the “Downloads” directory, elevate the terminal to the root account using the sudo -s command.
sudo -s
With the terminal set to root, use the mv command to place the BaZik theme files into the /usr/share/themes/ directory.
mv Bazik_* /usr/share/themes/
Single-user
Installing BaZik as a single-user is generally a good idea if nobody else uses your Linux PC. All theme files are placed in the home folder, and no system-level folders are touched.
To start the installation process as a single-user, you must create a directory called .themes. Using the mkdir command, make the folder.
mkdir -p ~/.themes
Once you’ve created the .themes folder, use the CD command to move the terminal window to the “Downloads” directory.
cd ~/Downloads
With the terminal window inside of the “Downloads” folder, it is time to install the BaZik theme files to the .themes folder. Use the mv command to move the theme files into place.
mv Bazik_* ~/.themes
Enabling BaZik
The BaZik GTK theme is now installed on your Linux PC, but the setup process is not complete. Merely installing the GTK theme will not automatically switch your Linux desktop to it. Instead, you must manually activate it by accessing it in the system settings.
To access the theme settings, open up the “Settings” window. Once in the “Settings” window, find “Themes” and change the default GTK theme to one of the BaZik color themes installed on your Linux PC.
