[mythtv-users] Can I tweak a theme?

[Stephen Worthington]

On Tue, 1 Aug 2017 07:09:31 -0700, you wrote:

>I've started using the Mythbuntu theme, but find there is one thing I don't
>like about it.  When watching recorded shows there is a column on the left
>to select shows then the larger area on the right that lets you select an
>episode.  When an episode has the focus the color of the selected show
>dims, but by a very slight amount, so it's very hard hard to tell which one
>has the focus.  I'd like to change the dimmed color of the selected show to
>be 10-20 RGB points lower when the episode frame has the focus.  Is there
>an easy way to do this?

Yes.  You make a copy of the theme you want under a different name (I
add my initials to the name), and then adjust the copy.  In Mythbuntu,
the builtin themes, such as Mythbuntu, can be found in
/usr/share/mythtv/themes.  The downloaded themes are found in
/home/<mythfrontenduser>/.mythtv/themes.  Any new themes you create by
modifying an existing one should be set up as though they were
downloaded, so copy /usr/share/mythtv/themes/Mythbuntu to
/home/<mythfrontenduser>/.mythtv/themes/Mythbuntu-modified and make
your changes there.  Then in the theme chooser screen, you should see
the name of your new theme and be able to select it to be used.

However, doing this means that you are responsible for keeping your
modified theme up to date - it will not be updated automatically if
changes are made to the original Mythbuntu theme files.  So if the
underlying MythTV software gets a change that requires a theme change,
or the theme you copied is changed for some other reason, you will
need to make the same changes in your copy.  Theme changes are not
common, so in practice you only need to remember to check your theme
when major MythTV version changes happen, or if you see an update
happen to your theme when you run apt to update the system.