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[This question is similar to another one (for Ubuntu vs Lubuntu) where there was no real answer other than to look for other Firefox themes -- something that has not worked for me in the past. At any rate, I think this question is different enough. At least I hope so.]

The Widget theme I selected in Lubuntu is Industrial. My understanding is the widget theme dictates what the scrollbar looks like in various programs.

Here's what the scrollbars are supposed to look like under the Industrial theme.

enter image description here

[Annotation should read Scrollbar not Toolbar ;) ]

As you can see, the scrollbars are wide, have a decorated thumb and arrows at both ends.

Below is an image that shows Pcmanfm (on the left) reflecting the Industrial type of scrollbar. Firefox 47.0, on the right, does not. It has a scrollbar that is too narrow for my comfortable use and it doesn't have the arrows at the top and bottom.

enter image description here

I've read that Canonical has branded Firefox, so I thought maybe that was the issue. I went into Firefox about:config and deleted everything I could that said Canonical. Still, I get the narrow scrollbars.

So what I'm trying to do is get the Firefox scrollbars to reflect the Widget theme I selected.

Before anyone asks, yes I've tried the Firefox addon called New Scrollbars (aka NoiaScrollbars). I can widen the scrollbars that way, but I can't add arrows top and bottom and I can't get a decorated thumb. IOW, it just looks too ugly for my tastes.

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  • Does this answer your question? How do I get rid of the Ubuntu scrollbars and theming in Firefox 46.0?
    – cipricus
    Mar 15, 2020 at 13:12
  • THIS question is in fact about the same problem, but the initial title and description of that question was somewhat misleading. It is in fact about Firefox using a default theme instead of the one selected. The same problem can be seen in recent version of Firefox.
    – cipricus
    Mar 15, 2020 at 13:14
  • THIS answer will impose the intended theme onto Firefox.
    – cipricus
    Mar 15, 2020 at 13:42

1 Answer 1

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Firefox 47 uses gtk3. PCManFM, the default version supplied with Lubuntu, uses gtk2. The industrial theme covers only gtk2. See /usr/share/themes/Industrial. There's no gtk-3.0 folder in there.

If you want Firefox to be themed decently, find a gtk3 theme!

You can increase the width of the scrollbar area (in some themes) by playing with the theme's gtk-widgets.css. Look for something like: -GtkRange-slider-width: and change the value to something you like.

That same file may also have something like:

-GtkScrollbar-has-backward-stepper: false;
-GtkScrollbar-has-forward-stepper: false;

You can try changing those values to true (if the theme supports steppers (the up and down arrows at the top and bottom of the scrollbar)). Many themes seem to be dropping them.

After saving the file, close and restart Firefox.

(I don't use Firefox themes or extensions for scrollbars and so can't help there. Same with decorating the thumb. Sorry!)

And what you're seeing has nothing to do with Canonical's modifications, AFAIK.

+++++++++++++

To know whether an application uses gtk2 or gtk3, try:

ldd /usr/bin/app_name | grep gtk

This, of course, assumes that the executable is in /usr/bin. If you're not sure, first ascertain that with which app_name.

  • gtk2 apps will have libgtk-x11-2.0 in the response.
  • gtk3 apps will have libgtk-3 in the response.
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  • Thanks for your comment. That solves the issue for me. How does one tell whether a program is gtk3 or gtk2 other than the fact that a particular theme doesn't work?
    – jackL
    Jun 22, 2016 at 7:00
  • I'll add a bit about that!
    – DK Bose
    Jun 22, 2016 at 7:25

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