How to switch Dark/Light theme with the Terminal?

Customization
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1

Hey, I'm building a IoT device capturing the light in my room to switch the color theme.

I just don't know how to create the Zorin Appearance behaviour when switching Dark/Light Theme in the Terminal.

I tried:

# Set Dark theme
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface gtk-theme ZorinBlue-Dark \
&& gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface icon-theme ZorinBlue-Dark \
&& gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface color-scheme prefer-dark

But just some elements are changing in the UI, how to complete the command?

2

@Aravisian might be able to help you with that, as he's our resident terminal wizard. :mage:

Its not hard to switch to dark mode using the UI though, just go to Zorin Appearance...

Zorin OS Dark_Light Mode Change
Zorin OS Dark_Light Mode Change1840×1222 107 KB

Startreker Signature
Startreker Signature700×342 112 KB

3

If some are changing, the plan is working. But some elements may be Flatpak, Snaps or other and there also is a difference between GTK3 apps and GTK4 apps.

4

Oh I see this script getting longer... are there commands exposed from Zorin Appearance which could simplify this process?

example:
zorin-appearance --set-color-theme dark

If there are none it might be a great idea for Zorin 18?

5

Okay, I found out when I modify the user-theme extension and additional set the theme with the gsettings it does change the apps I need and performs a clean theme switch.

So the working version is:

#! /bin/bash

THEME="ZorinBlue-Dark"
COLOR_THEME="prefer-dark"

# Set Dark theme
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface gtk-theme $THEME && \
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface color-scheme $COLOR_THEME && \
# https://askubuntu.com/questions/1375669/how-can-i-change-my-gnome-shell-theme-user-themes-extension-using-the-terminal
dconf write /org/gnome/shell/extensions/user-theme/name "'$THEME'"

Further reading:
When using crontab dconf needs an DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS otherwise gnome does not know which desktop session to change; it could be any session, so I found this thread which helps: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1234742/automatic-light-dark-mode

6

There's no need to mess with dconf, there's a setting for the user theme as well:

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface color-scheme 'prefer-dark'
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface gtk-theme 'ZorinBlue-Dark'
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface icon-theme 'ZorinBlue-Dark'
gsettings set org.gnome.shell.extensions.user-theme name 'ZorinBlue-Dark'
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