Rewaita sounds interesting

I read about the flatpak app "Rewaita" today. Rewaita was mentioned a while back in the "Show your desktop" thread, but I hadn't taken a closer look at it. I definitely have to check that out and I'll let you know.

2 Likes

But I have read this, yes?

NOTE: Rewaita so far does NOT work in Ubuntu 24.04 and works partially IN MY CASE in Ubuntu 25.04, probably because Ubuntu does not feature vanilla Gnome environment.

1 Like

Oops, I completely overlooked that. I tested it now in a live session, and found it interesting. But I don´t like all things. Maybe there are some conflicts with the Zorin settings. The transparency didn´t work well. You can set sharp corners there, that is interesting for those users who don't like rounded corners. It worked well for many preinstalled apps, but not all. I also enabled "Window Borders" to draw an accented border around all windows. I didn't find out yet how to change the blue color of that border.
I disabled the function to run the app in backgound at tab finetune because I had problems to launch the app after logout.

The buttons of the backdrop windows in the mac style didn´t look well (square light button, not round). And in the colored style they didn´t look consistent.

With sharp corners the buttons in mac style are squared buttons.

So finally, I think the app is not worth a recommendation. There are too many inconsistences.

Edit: On the github site were shown some commands to set the right permissions for the flatpak

sudo flatpak override --filesystem=xdg-config/gtk-3.0:rw
sudo flatpak override --filesystem=xdg-config/gtk-4.0:rw

And now the look of the buttons is better and the strange transparency errors are better but still problematic. I wouldn't use the transparency.

When you uninstall rewaita and the theme doesn't go away ((I had overlooked the advice to reset the color settings first in the app), it helps to run

rm ~/.config/gtk-3.0/gtk.css
rm -rf ~/.config/gtk-3.0/assets
rm ~/.config/gtk-4.0/gtk.css

Be careful with the app and those removal commands when you have setup custom css files.

Many things work fine, but others not.

1 Like

I guess, it would be better to test it with Vanilla Gnome on Fedora or Debian.

1 Like

Maybe the app has been improved since the review was published or since the first version was released, and it works better now?

Yes, it would be interesting to see how the app performs in vanilla GNOME and whether there are fewer issues there.

I stumbled across Rewaita here and there and thought about giving it a try. So thanks for taking a closer look and sharing your experience. :hugs:

1 Like

I have Debian installed. I could remove my current Theme and then look how Rewaita will work. I will try it at the Weekend. Maybe post some Screenshots of it then.

2 Likes

I tested it a bit on Debian and it worked so far. The min/max/close Buttons did switch well and look fine for me.

The Theming ... I used Gruvbox. Beside Catppuchin, it was the only Thing what I find nice. Interesting here: When You click on a Theme, You get a Note - unfortunately in the Rewaita Window - that say, that You have the use Rewaita for Gnome Shell Theme and You have to reboot.

So, I opened gnome-tweaks and have chosen Rewaita as Gnome Shell Theme and logged out and in again (that was enough for me) and the Theme applied. And that totally fine. I tried some Programs and they looked good. I enabled Borderline which leads to a Logout-Login again but then it worked well, too. Creating a Theme, I didn't tried.

Because of the Way it works, I can understand why a Vanilla Gnome Desktop works better. Because there are simply no Configurations on it that could interfere. I forgot to make Screenshots but wanted to report at least.

Thank you for your feedback and taking the time for the test!
It's a shame that the app can only be used with Adwaita and not with other themes.

Well, it is a Theming Program. And when there is already a Theme ... It themes a bit differently then using a normal Theme but when there is already a Theme in Usage and You try to add that too, it is like You would use 2 Themes at the same Time.

I believe Rewaita is intended for use to bypass LibAdwaita overriding and controlling theming for Adwaita. It is not intended to bypass LibAdwaita for All Themes.

2 Likes

We'd need to see a Bypass available for every theme... That would make a lot of sense.

I tested Rewaita on Zorin 17.3 Lite:

Here with gruvbox soft theme dark and gruvbox plus dark icon theme and gruvbox B MB dark xfwm theme.

The blue window border didn't work correctly, just in gtk4 apps, but the theme worked. Not as good as in gnome because of the window title bar which doesn't has the same color, but okay.

The mac os window buttons are colored on active windows (here you don't see it because the windows are inactive because of Zorin menu)

I searched for an adwaita xfwm4 theme and found one one kde look, and it is a bit lighter than the black titlebar before, but the window buttons then have not the right color. I found no good xfwm4 theme for adwaita that fits to the adwaita gtk theme in Zorin 17 Lite.

with adwaita dark xfwm4 theme from kde store:

with gruvbox xfwm4 theme:

This is because the Buttons go in the same Gruvbox Color Sheme.

Oh, and an Addition: I have changed my Debian Installation from stable to Unstable. And there Rewaita works, too.

1 Like