Dark Plastic Reloaded

I found a really nice looking desktop theme whilst cruising the net and decided to try it out. This turned out to be a bit more involved than I thought but, due to my natural never-ending resolve, I managed to complete the operation in about four hours.

The time it took me should not deter anyone from installing this fantastic theme as most of my time was spent searching for solutions to problems I encountered along the way. Following this tutorial should have you up and running with a spanking new theme in short order.

This tutorial goes beyond the basic DP Reloaded theme. Besides the prerequisite Crystal window decoration and the Domino theme/style we will also install and configure KBFX; a fully customizable kicker menu alternative. KBFX is, in my opinion, a really nice addition to the Kicker.

Before we dive in let's be sure we understand some basic stuff:

• The Kicker is your task bar.
• Code that you are expected to type into the terminal is indented and in bold-face type:

echo I am this computers <user>

• <user> should be replaced by your user name.

We will be installing the following items during the course of this tutorial:

1. Crystal decoration
2. Domino theme/style.
3. libcvsservice_dev
4. libcvsservice0
5. cmake
6. icmake

My Kubuntu came with the Crystal theme pre-installed. You may or may not have some of the required "things we need" installed. In any case, aptitude will ignore any requests to install software that already exists on your system. It will, however, update any existing software if an update exists.

First, lets update our repositories list:

sudo aptitude update

Install the packages:

sudo aptitude install kwin-style-crystal cmake icmake libcvsservice-dev libcvsservice0

Download and Install KDE Style Domino

Download kde-style-domino from kde-look.org.

To install it simply right-click on the .deb for your system type and select Kubuntu Packages Menu -> Install Package.

 Download the DP Reloaded theme from kde-look.org. and extract it:

tar xvf /home/<user>/"54265-Dark Plastic Reloaded.tar.gz"

Add the KDE Control Center

Note: This step is optional but for clarity's sake it might be easier to follow the next steps by adding the Control Center button. You can remove it when you are done.

1. Right-click on an empty part of the Kicker and select Add Applet to Pannel.
2. Select Settings applet and click the Add Applet button.

To open the KDE Control Center click the Settings button and choose Control Center.

Configure the Colors

Open the KDE Control Center

1. KDE Control Center -> Appearance & Themes -> Colors -> Import Scheme[button]^.
2. Select Dark Plastic.kcsrc and press the Open[button]_.
3. Press the Apply[button].

1. Desktop -> Panels -> Appearance[tab]
2. Check Enable Background Image[check box] and select Backgroung.png from the Dark Plastic Reloaded/Kicker/ directory.
3. Press the Apply[button].

1. Apearance & Themes -> Style -> Style[tab].
2. Select Domino from the Wiget Style[drop-down menu].
3. Press the Configure[button] -> Load/Save[tab] -> Import Config[button].
4. Import individualy each of the three styles in the Dark Plastic Reloaded/Style /Domino/ directory:
   • domino_bluerc
   • domino_brushedrc
   • domino_orangerc
5. Highlight any one of the schemes and press the Load Config[button]
6. Press the OK[button].
7. Press the Apply[button].

Go to the Apearance & Themes -> Window Decorations -> Window Decorations[tab]. Configure the following sub-tabs:

1. General[sub-tab]:Choose Title Alignment, Round Corners, Border Width, Titlebar Height etc. to your liking.
2. Buttons[sub-tab]: Choose the button style you prefer from the drop-down menu.
3. Background[sub-tab]: Disable (un-check) transparency (IMPORTANT).
   • Active[tab] -> Set the first select menu to Simple Outline and the color to black (#000000).
   • Active[tab] -> Set the second select menu to Simple inline and the color to black (#000000).
   • Inactive[tab] -> Set the first select menu to Simple Outline and the color to black (#000000).
   • Inactive[tab] -> Set the second select menu to Simple inline and the color to black (#000000).
4. Logo [sub-tab]: Not really needed.
5. Overlay[sub-tab]: (THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART)
   • Overlay for Active Window[section] -> select the User Defined[radio button].
   • Press the Browse[button] and select Active Window Overlay.png from the Dark Plastic Reloaded/Windeco/Crystal/ directory.
   • Overlay for Inactive Window[section] -> select the User Defined[radio button].
   • Press the Browse[button] and select Inactive Window Overlay.png from the Dark Plastic Reloaded/Windeco/Crystal/ directory.

First and most important, we need to download KBFX version 0.4.9.3-20070225 (or higher?). In my testing any version below this did not work. Check the KBFX home page for the latest version or use this link: http://www.kbfx.org/release/0.4.9/testing/ The file I used was kbfx-0.4.9.3-20070225.tar.bz2 but again, check their home page or the KBFX downloads page for newer (higher) versions.

Note: The following installation steps are for Kubuntu and might not work for other flavors of Linux.

Save the tarball to a directory where you want to extract it.

Open a terminal and navigate to the directory where the tarball is.

Extract the tarball, replacing the version number throughout as needed:

tar xvf /home/<user>/kbfx-0.4.9.3-20070225.tar.bz2

Change to the new directory:

cd /kbfx-0.4.9.3-20070225

Run the build script:

$ sudo ./build.sh

Answer any questions build asks.

First off, lets extract the three archives files in our /Dark Plastic Reloaded/Kbfx directory:

tar xvf /home/<user>/"Dark Plastic Reloaded"/Kbfx/Brushed.tar.gz 

tar xvf /home/<user>/"Dark Plastic Reloaded"/Kbfx/"DP Reloaded Orange.tar.gz"

tar xvf /home/<user>/"Dark Plastic Reloaded"/Kbfx/"DP Reloaded.tar.gz"

Right-click on an empty part of the Kicker and select Add KBFX Sphinx to Pannel.

Right-click on the KBFX Button and select Configure KBFX.

Themes[tab] -> Browse to add the Dark Plastic Reloaded/Kbfx/ themes folder and select the theme you prefer.

Press the Apply[button].

Start Buton[tab] -> browse to add the normal.png, pressed.png and hover.png in the /home/<user>Dark Plastic Reloaded/Kbfx/<your chosen theme>/ folder.

Press the Apply[button].

That's about it. Configure the rest of KBFX to your liking.