Problem solved!
Thank you everyone for attempting to help me, turns out, it was just a combination of not being super familiar with the ins and outs of linux, command line programs and slightly unhelpful command outputs and documentation.
Here's a run down of exactly what happened, and how I fixed it:
First I cloned the repository (this is based on my actual command history, not just memory), changed into its directory and ran ./install.sh. Unfortunately I didn't realise I was supposed to type my customisation choices before running the command, and moved on to ./tweaks.sh to customise the theme to my liking. Learning from past mistakes here I ran ./tweaks.sh --help to learn the options first. Using this I was able to connect it to firefox, add flatpak support, and install it for GDM. I wasn't sure what GDM was, but a quick google informed me it was the login screen.
Forgetting about this specific choice, one I changed back to a zorin theme using Gnome Tweaks, I was shocked to see the Apple activities icon still present (I later, as in today found out that the accent colour, some fonts and the x button in the activities view were also changed, but these were a lot more subtle). My gut reaction to this was to run the scripts again, searching for any uninstall option. Both scripts told me I could, however the option's description led me to believe it would completely remove everything, but it only removes the selectable themes.
./install.sh --help
-r, --remove, -u, --uninstall
Remove all installed WhiteSur themes.
./tweaks.sh --help
-r, --remove, --revert
Revert to the original themes, do the opposite things of install and connect.
./tweaks.sh --help
-r, --remove, --revert
Revert to the original themes, do the opposite things of install and connect.
I did attempt the same with ./tweak.sh, removing the firefox and flatpak support, but, having barely interacted with the login screen, completely forgetting that I had even installed it. It only became apparent what had caused it when I realised that it was a change at the system level, and the GDM option was the only one requiring sudo.
But why did the GDM theme replace my activities icon? I have no idea. I assume it's a bug of some sort.
In all honesty, if the script reported on what was currently installed, either in general or just when attempting to uninstall it I would have been able to troubleshoot this problem days ago. Or, if the language used by the uninstall descriptions was clearer that might have helped me solve this issue. I later discovered that the Github page actually has far better uninstall instructions
, and just running these commands would have solved my problems entirely.
Lessons learned? - I am personally safer just sticking to gnome tweaks level themes, rather than install scripts and that --help can sometimes be more of a hindrance than seeking out better documentation on github or elsewhere.
TLDR: Beginner mistakes, slightly obtuse language and a bug? is what caused this.
Anyway, thanks for the help and for reading I guess. Hopefully if anyone else is ever in this situation this can help.
