How do I get GNOME applications to follow the XFCE appearance settings?

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1

I am having a hard time getting GNOME applications like Nautilus to use a dark theme. Has anyone had success with this?

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface color-scheme 'prefer-dark

The command no longer works since I have Fedora 40 with XFCE.

2

In Fedora-4x-xfce templates all the gnome stuff was removed. So if you still want do work with, you better should install Fedora-4x templates. But I have no clue, how long they will be appear in future versions of QubesOS…
The -xfce templates are more lightweight than their non-xfce pendants.

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3

I know about the switch to XFCE. What I’m not sure about is why the GNOME settings don’t apply after downloading applications like Nautilus.

4

I’m afraid, you (also) need a “GNOME Settings package” - just only Nautilus and/or Drives or other GNOME tools are not enough. But I’m sure - if you’re using a / the Fedora-40 template, all will (still) be included there for you.

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5

I’m not using the Fedora-40 or Fedora-40-XFCE packages. I am using Fedora 40 Minimal. I downloaded the gnome-control-center package, but it refuses to start with the error message: Running gnome-control-center is only supported under GNOME and Unity, exiting.

Could this be an indicator of my main problem?

6

Based on the message, you need to install GNOME in the qube to use gnome-control-center:

7
  • dnf group list -v --available | grep desktop does not list GNOME as an option.
  • sudo dnf group install "Fedora Workstation" has conflicting packages (firewalld)
  • sudo dnf group install "GNOME Desktop Environment" does not yield any result.

Could it be that for some strange reason GNOME is fundamentally broken with Fedora 40 Minimal?

8
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Thanks, I was able to install GNOME with this, but when I try to start the GNOME Display Manager service, I get the following error:

sudo systemctl enable gdm.service

Failed to enable unit: File /etc/systemd/system/display-manager.service already exists and is a symlink to /usr/lib/systemd/system/lightdm.service.

At this point, I honestly don’t think it’s worth the effort. However, if someone is able to successfully install a minimal GNOME setup (say, just Nautilus) with dark mode enabled, I would be very interested.