change menu, file manager and theme

Hi,
I just installed Zorin 15 on a laptop (thinkpad x230t, i5 3320m, 8GB ram, 180GB ssd). Going through all the settings and customization. There are 3 elements I would like to change.
1) I tried all 6 desktop option settled on the second one on the top row (resembles Windows 7), but not really happy with the 'Menu' I would prefer a cascading menu (click on a category and the content sips out on the right of it) also I miss an 'All Application' category.
2) The file manager is to basic and does not suit me. I like a file manager where the sidebar (on the left) has a 'tree look mode' click a folder and all the sub-folders within are listed below on an indent. click on a sub-folder and if they contain sub-sub-folders, they list below on an indent, etc... I also miss having text menu on top left (file, edit, view, go, etc...). When I click 'Other Locations' I expect then to be listed on the sidebar below the other entries (not on the main window).
3) Very limited numbers of 'Themes' and 'Wallpapers' other distros you can download lots of complete themes, you can mix and math icons. Also I can not change the size of the icons on the desktop (they are way to big).

Can an other File Manager be installed (maybe Nemo?) and uninstall 'Nautilus' or would that break Zorin? Is the 'Menu' an independent app? or part of the File Manager? or part of the Theme?
Thank you

chameau wrote:Hi,
I just installed Zorin 15 on a laptop (thinkpad x230t, i5 3320m, 8GB ram, 180GB ssd). Going through all the settings and customization. There are 3 elements I would like to change.
1) I tried all 6 desktop option settled on the second one on the top row (resembles Windows 7), but not really happy with the 'Menu' I would prefer a cascading menu (click on a category and the content sips out on the right of it) also I miss an 'All Application' category.
2) The file manager is to basic and does not suit me. I like a file manager where the sidebar (on the left) has a 'tree look mode' click a folder and all the sub-folders within are listed below on an indent. click on a sub-folder and if they contain sub-sub-folders, they list below on an indent, etc... I also miss having text menu on top left (file, edit, view, go, etc...). When I click 'Other Locations' I expect then to be listed on the sidebar below the other entries (not on the main window).
3) Very limited numbers of 'Themes' and 'Wallpapers' other distros you can download lots of complete themes, you can mix and math icons. Also I can not change the size of the icons on the desktop (they are way to big).

Can an other File Manager be installed (maybe Nemo?) and uninstall 'Nautilus' or would that break Zorin? Is the 'Menu' an independent app? or part of the File Manager? or part of the Theme?
Thank you

chameau, Right off the bat, i sounds like you would be much happier using Zorin Lite -XFCE.
I use Lite with Nemo installed. Thunar and SpaceFM are also good choices. Zorin Lite comes with Thunar.
Zorin Core, which uses Gnome, is more limited in its themes. There is a lot of history as to why...
The menu- it sounds like the XFCE WHiskerMenu is a good match for what you would like to use.
Changing settings on Gnome is tricky and limited though it usually can be done with extensions, and downloadable Tweak Tools... But on XFCE it is a breeze, with the Settings built in.
Normally, if you had been running your distro for a while, I'd make suggestions that can help you adjust your Gnome Desktop but if you just installed your Distro- I really think that Zorin Lite is a better match. Let me know what you think.

Thanks Aravisian for the quick reply, it late here in Australia I'm heading off to bed, but I download the light version and try it. I been using Mint cinnamon for some time and I'm just 'surfing' distros to see what else is up there. tried PClinux, Deepin, Ferenos..

chameau wrote:Thanks Aravisian for the quick reply, it late here in Australia I'm heading off to bed, but I download the light version and try it. I been using Mint cinnamon for some time and I'm just 'surfing' distros to see what else is up there. tried PClinux, Deepin, Ferenos..

Mint uses Mate desktop (tweaked to become Cinnamon), which is very similar to XFCE. I think you would find Zorin Lite to be much more like what you are familiar with.
Also, you could install Cinnamon Desktop right on your Zorin 15 Core build, then choose it at the login. You have plenty of options. Though for the build, switching to Lite may be the better option- or switching to lite, then adding the Cin Desktop on that build, instead.
Get some sleep and later, we can fine tune your machine to being the envy of the continent.

OK, First off the menu - I think Aravisian found this to be Arc (or was that the Panel?). As for a different menu you might want to look at downloading GnoMenu which I have put in the unofficial manual (viewtopic.php?f=3&t=14361),

As for themes, you will need Gnome Tweak tool to install other themes - the ones that are in .zip file format are the best for 'Tweaks' to install. If they are in .tar.gz you can just uncompress then compress them again as .zip files. I've used opendesktop.org/gnomelook.org/Pling!.com - all the same hosting people, and looked for 'themes' but as Zorin 15 is Gtk3 you will only be able to use Gtk3 themes of which there aren't many, but Aravisian has made some stonking, wondeful themes for Zorin!

As for file manager I am using Thunar as well as Nautilus - if you were to remove Nautilus you would indeed bork your system - I know, I've tried it. Also MBMz10 from your neck of the woods, kindly pointed out that all file managers can show a pane on the left if you press F10 (just like viewing the Menu Bar in any Browser).

Swarfendor437 wrote:OK, First off the menu - I think Aravisian found this to be Arc (or was that the Panel?)

Correct, ZorinMenu and ZorinMenuLite are based off of Graeme Gotts very excellent Arc Menu.

Swarfendor437 wrote:... Gtk3 you will only be able to use Gtk3 themes of which there aren't many, but Aravisian has made some stonking, wondeful themes for Zorin!

Requests possibly accepted...

Following Aravisian advice, I run Zorin Lite (as a live version only) and are much happier with the Thunar file manager thats a big improvement, I was even able to size the desktop incons. In the top and bottom version theme, I discovered a different 'Menu' (on the top bar) which together with 'Places' works more like what I like (still not perfect but much better). I played around a bit more in the live distro and decided to install it. The installer is the same as for the KDE version, so I did the same. However once Zorin was installed and up-to-date, it became buggy! thinks that work fine in the live version started to play up (frozen apps, unresponsive clicks, lables not corresponding to the apps they point to, etc...) Something when wrong during the install, so I decided to re-install and that's when it stuffed up completely. After 'something else' selecting the partitions (EFI 100MB, Root 30GB, Swap 16MB, Home 40GB), the installer gave an error and hung! To add to my tribulation the next day my internet service went down (Monday 3/02/20) and has been down ever since (stupid NBN!!) Technician comming tomorrow to (maybe) fix? I'm writing this email with a hot spot from my phone. Once the internet is back, I will download the iso again and burn it to a new thumb drive. Before I do that I have a few questions.
1) My computer support both Legacy and UEFI, I set the bios to 'Both' with UEFI first. The installer does not give any clues as to MBR or GPT install? the fact that I can sellect 'Primary' or 'Logical' would indicate that It is an MBR install? However I want to make it a GPT install, that why the partition I make is th EFI fat32 partition as primary. After that the installer should know that I want a GPT install and no longer offer 'Logical' partition becose the 4 primary limit under MBR is no longer under GPT. How do I make sure it is a GPT install?
2) when burning the iso to thumb drive I use 'Etcher' is Zorin compatable with Etcher? if not please suggest alternative.

Thanks

1) For GPT install:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwXRtJ6eC7I

2) For pendrive: Rufus (Assuming you are using Windows)

https://rufus.ie/

Also a few pointers.

A. Don't use a Download Accelerator Manager.

B. Check the md5 sum/SHA code before creating bootable thumb drive.

C. Format your thumb drive (all of it) to FAT32. Use Zorin in live mode, run GParted, select thumb drive for formatting and format to FAT32.

I, too, have started having troubles with Zorin 15 Lite.

Keys from the keyboard are hesitating causing me to mis-enter passwords, numerical values- it happens in every app.

General slowness and bogged down responsiveness. The computer seems -Slow- far more often than it did on Xubuntu 18.04.
A stark contrast to Zorin 12.4 lite.

In addition, the window management is very buggy. Window borders are not showing transparency sometimes. Or it shows it offset.
Conky does not show ANY transparency when a background image is used and it always did before until now.
The compositor does not seem to be working right.
Zorin 15 Lite also seems to update a LOT. I mean, a LOT. Xubuntu updated about once a month, but Zorin 15 Lite seems much more frequent which makes me think updates are being riskily pushed through.

I re-downloaded zorin lite, checked it md5, burn onto a new thunbdrive. Run it as a live session, everything looks good and is working as expected. I install it on new 240GB SSD (efi, root, home swap partitions) installed fine, re-boot. First thing I want to do is customize the panel by replacing 'Zorin Menu Lite' with 'Application Menu' I open the panel preference/items and every item is listed as 'separator'? in the live session the items name did match the actual item. strange that it is the installed version that is buggy and not the live session? I only just startedto explore it, but if it is as buggy than the first install, I have to change back to Mint.
I also noticed that 'Evolution' is missing from the lite version (thunderbird is there instead). Evolution is a must have for me, is Evolution not compatible with Zorin Lite?

continuing with my customisation i found the following: under 'Appearance/Icons' some themes have a warning as follow: Warning this icon theme has no cache file. you can create this by running: gtk-update-icon-cache/usr/share/icons/breeze/ in a terminal. Doing so returns: bash: gtk-update-icon-cache/usr/share/icons/breeze: no such file or directory, but the directory usr/share/icons/breeze does exist!?

chameau wrote: First thing I want to do is customize the panel by replacing 'Zorin Menu Lite' with 'Application Menu' I open the panel preference/items and every item is listed as 'separator'? in the live session the items name did match the actual item. strange that it is the installed version that is buggy and not the live session?

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+sour ... ug/1758048
Strange... There is a bug report on it, yet on 18.04 Bionic, it seems the report attends to XFCE version 4.12, not 4.14. This must affect more than just older versions.

chameau wrote: continuing with my customisation i found the following: under 'Appearance/Icons' some themes have a warning as follow: Warning this icon theme has no cache file. you can create this by running: gtk-update-icon-cache/usr/share/icons/breeze/ in a terminal. Doing so returns: bash: gtk-update-icon-cache/usr/share/icons/breeze: no such file or directory, but the directory usr/share/icons/breeze does exist!?

You might remove the icon cache file, then run the command again.
While you are at the process of removing the file- check first that it is not hidden with a "." in front, first.

Interesting post.... this bug has been around since 2018, what are the chances of it getting fix any time soon?
I can't see a 'cache' folder within usr/share/icons/breeze/ ther are plenty of other folders in there but not cache.

Do you think Evolution can be installed without breaking anything?

chameau wrote:Interesting post.... this bug has been around since 2018, what are the chances of it getting fix any time soon?
I can't see a 'cache' folder within usr/share/icons/breeze/ ther are plenty of other folders in there but not cache.

It was present in 14.04...
I have never experienced this bug and I have tried a lot of XFCE desktops on many distros. In fact, I never heard of it...
I'll keep looking into it to see if I can find a cure.

chameau wrote:Do you think Evolution can be installed without breaking anything?

Without breaking anything- It is unlikely to break the system. Worst case scenario is that Evolution will not work.
Evolution is a Gnome App which is why it comes with Gnome Desktop.
Zorin Lite uses XFCE desktop.

To be sure, I just tested this on my own Zorin Lite machine.
It installed just fine, but I never used Evolution, so I do not know whether everything was in perfect working order.
But as yours is a fresh install with a couple bugs... What have you got to lose?

Code:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gnome3-team/gnome3-staging

Code:

sudo apt update

Code:

sudo apt-get install evolution

If you could be so kind as to let us all know how that works out.

Aravisian wrote:

chameau wrote:Interesting post.... this bug has been around since 2018, what are the chances of it getting fix any time soon?
I can't see a 'cache' folder within usr/share/icons/breeze/ ther are plenty of other folders in there but not cache.

It was present in 14.04...
I have never experienced this bug and I have tried a lot of XFCE desktops on many distros. In fact, I never heard of it...
I'll keep looking into it to see if I can find a cure.

I MAY have found something. It seems that the bug might be caused by locale choice of language. For example, let's say that you selected British English, instead of American English during install. Or, if no locale is set. Which may be why I never experienced it.
In which case, switching to en_US.UTF-8 would resolve if that is the cause.
There are GUI tools that can do that or you can do it manually; the setting is stored in /etc/default/locale.

I will try the language thing and install evolution over the weekend and let you know how I go. Thanks for all the help and tips