How to make LXQT look like as documented?

Troubleshooting
1

Creating a bug report/issue

I have searched the existing open and closed issues

Required Information

  • DietPi version | cat /boot/dietpi/.version
G_DIETPI_VERSION_CORE=9
G_DIETPI_VERSION_SUB=9
G_DIETPI_VERSION_RC=0
G_GITBRANCH='master'
G_GITOWNER='MichaIng'
G_LIVE_PATCH_STATUS[0]='applied'
G_LIVE_PATCH_STATUS[1]='applied'
G_LIVE_PATCH_STATUS[2]='not applicable'
G_LIVE_PATCH_STATUS[3]='not applicable'
  • Distro version | echo $G_DISTRO_NAME $G_RASPBIAN

bookworm

  • Kernel version | uname --all

Linux DietPi 6.12.8 #1 SMP PREEMPT Thu Jan 2 11:09:13 UTC 2025 aarch64 GNU/Linux

  • Architecture | dpkg --print-architecture

arm64

  • SBC model | echo $G_HW_MODEL_NAME or (EG: RPi3)

Quartz64 (aarch64)

  • Power supply used | (EG: 5V 1A RAVpower)

12V 5A POWER SUPPLY with 5.5mm OD/2.1mm ID DC Jack - EU version

  • SD card used | (EG: SanDisk ultra)

Samsung Evo Select MB-ME256KA/EU microSDXC UHS-I U3

Additional Information (if applicable)

  • Software title | (EG: Nextcloud)

LXQT

  • Was the software title installed freshly or updated/migrated?

Freshly

  • Can this issue be replicated on a fresh installation of DietPi?
    ā† If you sent a ā€œdietpi-bugreportā€, please paste the ID here ā†’
  • Bug report ID | echo $G_HW_UUID

Steps to reproduce

  1. Go to Graphical Desktop Environments and Utilities - DietPi.com Docs ;
  2. Look forward to having that screenshoted LXQT desktop on your DietPi ;
  3. Install it.

Expected behaviour

  • The LXQT desktop installed by dietpi-software looks like the screenshot.

Actual behaviour

  • It doesnā€™t look the same at all.

Extra details

  • None

Thanks

2

How does you LXQT look like?

3

Ping @StephanStS as master of documentation

4

I have DietPi with LXQt running on an old netbook, and it looks pretty much like the screenshot, except for the workspaces, bc I donā€™t use them.
The installation is somewhat old, so maybe they changed the default theme in the meantime?
But you can switch the themes in the system settings.

desktop
desktop1366Ɨ768 108 KB

It also looks like the screenshot in the docs just uses another theme (Ambience) while the default is the Debian theme.

1 Like
5

Well thatā€™s what Iā€™m looking for then

How do I get it ?

6

My base installation of LXQt looks like this:

image
image1408Ɨ880 199 KB

If you want to customize your desktop environment, maybe our blog posts help: X11 ā€“ DietPi Blog

@KaKi87: Could you supply a screenshot of your environment that we can see what you mean regarding differences in the appearance?

7

Here is a tutorial, you can simply change it in the system settings, there is an entry for the appearance settings.

https://manual.lubuntu.me/stable/3/3.2/3.2.2/appearance.html

Additional themes can be downloaded here, they provide also instructions for installation:
https://www.opendesktop.org/browse?cat=446&ord=latest

1 Like
8

Iā€™m not seeing anything in there about installing the theme ?

It actually looks like the screenshot in that blog post though :

screenshot
screenshot684Ɨ557 147 KB

I donā€™t have the themes shown in that tutorialā€™s screenshots though.

I donā€™t see ā€œAmbianceā€ ?

So I tried ā€œLXQt Breeze Themeā€ and it works but only for the taskbar, not the window decorations :confused:

10

Maybe you need to log in and out to make the changes working, just a guess.
I also found out that ambience is a default lxqt theme and there is also an apt package for it:

So you can install it with apt install lxqt-themes.
You should see it then in the menu.

11

I actually did a whole restart.

Yeah, the ā€œAmbianceā€ option appeared, and after selecting it and rebooting, the taskbar changed according to the screenshot, but the window decorations still didnā€™tā€¦

Thanks

12

Yes, the window colors can be changed in the ā€œwidget styleā€ settings:
https://manual.lubuntu.me/stable/3/3.2/3.2.2/appearance.html#usage

13

I found that already too, thereā€™s no ā€œAmbianceā€ in ā€œQt Styleā€ but there was one in ā€œLoad Paletteā€, and it didnā€™t change window decorations, only colors inside windows (and not in the same way as shown in the documentation screenshot anyway)ā€¦

Thanks

14

Ambience is only the LXQt theme, this is indepent from the style of the windows and honestly I donā€™t know wqhat the name of the color palette etc is. Usually I donā€™t use a desktop environment on Debian.

15

LXQt was/is really a moving target, changing its default appearance and setting heavily with every release/Debian version :smile: .

16

Okay, well, is there any desktop environment that is known to look good on DietPi ?

Like, I know MATE and XFCE from Linux Mint but they look nothing like that on DietPi, I didnā€™t know LXQT and it didnā€™t look anything like advertised after installing it.

So, what looks good ?

Thank you

17

This depends on personal taste and cannot be answered in general terms. As a rule, every desktop has the option of setting it individually. You donā€™t have to use our default. However, this should work on every desktop and has nothing to do with DietPi.

As described above, some examples in our blog post