horrible red frames around all elements and way huge icons in dt 2.4.4

Howdy,

I just upgraded to ubuntu 18.04.1 and now - when opening dt, there is a red frame around every element and all icons are very big. Way too big. dt looks like some prep-school toy.

When I start dt in a terminal, I get this:

stefan@outpost:~$ darktable

(darktable:6632): Gtk-WARNING **: 22:25:37.077: Theme parsing error: gtk.css:27:35: Junk at end of value for background-color

(darktable:6632): Gtk-WARNING **: 22:25:37.077: Theme parsing error: gtk.css:40:48: Junk at end of value for background-color

(darktable:6632): Gtk-WARNING **: 22:25:37.077: Theme parsing error: gtk.css:48:46: Junk at end of value for background-color

(darktable:6632): Gtk-WARNING **: 22:25:37.077: Theme parsing error: gtk.css:59:58: Junk at end of value for background-color

(darktable:6632): Gtk-WARNING **: 22:25:37.077: Theme parsing error: gtk.css:66:28: The :prelight pseudo-class is deprecated. Use :hover instead.

(darktable:6632): Gtk-WARNING **: 22:25:37.077: Theme parsing error: gtk.css:70:46: Junk at end of value for background-color

(darktable:6632): Gtk-WARNING **: 22:25:37.077: Theme parsing error: gtk.css:77:35: The :prelight pseudo-class is deprecated. Use :hover instead.

(darktable:6632): Gtk-WARNING **: 22:25:37.077: Theme parsing error: gtk.css:81:58: Junk at end of value for background-color

(darktable:6632): Gtk-WARNING **: 22:25:37.163: Theme parsing error: darktable.css:21:14: Using Pango syntax for the font: style property is deprecated; please use CSS syntax

(darktable:6632): Gtk-WARNING **: 22:25:37.163: Theme parsing error: darktable.css:36:26: The :insensitive pseudo-class is deprecated. Use :disabled instead.

(darktable:6632): Gtk-WARNING **: 22:25:37.163: Theme parsing error: darktable.css:206:28: The :insensitive pseudo-class is deprecated. Use :disabled instead.

(darktable:6632): Gtk-WARNING **: 22:25:37.163: Theme parsing error: darktable.css:371:50: The :insensitive pseudo-class is deprecated. Use :disabled instead.

(darktable:6632): Gtk-WARNING **: 22:25:37.163: Theme parsing error: darktable.css:372:37: The :insensitive pseudo-class is deprecated. Use :disabled instead.

(darktable:6632): Gtk-WARNING **: 22:25:37.164: Theme parsing error: darktable.css:442:30: The style property GtkWidget:wide-separators is deprecated and shouldn’t be used anymore. It will be removed in a future version

(darktable:6632): Gtk-WARNING **: 22:25:37.164: Theme parsing error: darktable.css:443:30: The style property GtkWidget:separator-width is deprecated and shouldn’t be used anymore. It will be removed in a future version

(darktable:6632): Gtk-WARNING **: 22:25:37.164: Theme parsing error: darktable.css:444:31: The style property GtkWidget:separator-height is deprecated and shouldn’t be used anymore. It will be removed in a future version
dt_gui_gtk_init: error parsing /usr/share/darktable/darktable.css: darktable.css:21:8not a number

what am I up against and how can I kill it?

all good - I removed dt, did an autoremove and installed dt again. Now things look like they should and there are no more errors

It was the gtk theme, it looks like.

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also check if you dont have a darktable.css in your ~/.config/darktable/ dir

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This is an important step. I had to remove and reinstall darktable in order to fix the red borders.
Simply changing the ppa from xenial to bionic did not work.

Same story here.
After I upgraded from Ubuntu 16.04 to 18.04 (yes, I updated the darktable ppa to bionic), my darktable UI was in ‘ugly mode’ as well: huge text and icons, big red borders around frames.

I removed darktable (with apt-get), did an ‘apt-get autoremove’, then installed darktable once again (with apt-get, as well), and now it seems back to normal.

Is this bug been reported already? Is it a bug to report, in the first place?

The red border indicates a mismatch in gtk CSS versions.

Yes, I’ve already read it somewhere (possibly here on pixel.us
).

However
 why a uninstall-reinstall solves the issue?
Where’s the bug?

Uninstall removes the CSS and you get a fresh one when you reinstall. You could skip the uninstall on ubuntu/Debian and just force an install.

This isn’t really a bug, the red border is altering you to the mis-match.

I am not quite sure but I think it’s because of the outdated local darktable.css file (in ~/.config/darktable folder for linux). I had this problem in the past but it was fixed as soon as I removed this file from my local config folder. By doing this, darktable uses the correct file from the installation (in usr/local/share/darktable/ or so).
Hope this helps.

Before doing the uninstall-reinstall cycle, I checked in the ~/.config/darktable folder and there wasn’t any *.css file. Right now, as well, there is no such file, either. The only file with that name I had on my system was /usr/share/darktable/darktable.css. I deleted it, but without any visible influence on darktable appearance.

So I guess this can’t be the answer, at least in my case.

What can happen during installation that fixes this issue with gtk?

I see. Please also check if renaming/removing the darktablerc file in the local config folder helps.

You shouldn’t delete this file

Yes, I tried also that (out of curiosity) and, as expected, didn’t affect the graphic appearance (if it did, it would have spawned a new set of concerns
).
That file should only affect the ‘preferences’ and ‘session status’ of the software, if I’m not wrong, and it should be absolutely graphic independent.

You’re absolutely right. I was just curious to see if it has an effect. Thanks for testing.

I regularly pull and build darktable from the git repository and I had this problem everytime I was doing that a year ago. Frankly I don’t remember what exactly I did that resolved this issue. I just remember that I was editing the css file and changing the font: Sans 8; line to font: 8pt Sans; everytime.

Often on major upgrades, it is advisable to use the ppa-purge tool to completely remove everything that was installed by and because of a ppa package. ppa-purge automates this, as well as removing the ppa from your pacakges list. Then once the system is upgraded, add back the ppa to your pacakges list (e.g. with add-apt-repository) and then reinstall the applications you wanted. Saves a lot of these kinds of troubles.

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@msd,

that’s it 
 I just changed the font line as you mentioned . . . still getting GTK errors when I start darktable but at least it looks normal now

Good suggestion.
The only slight dislike I have to this is that you have to ‘manually’ take note somewhere of the software you have installed from a ppa, so that you can reinstall all of it again after you add the ppa again.
This, in my opinion defeats a bit the purpose of an upgrade, since it resemble more the procedure for a ‘clean’ installation. :roll_eyes:
I kinda expected that a ppa like the one for Darktable, which includes packages for both the version before and after the upgrade, could take care if this ‘automatically’.
But I don’t know if this is possible, or if the only and best option must be the ‘partially clean’ installation (meaning a distro upgrade with a part of ‘manual’ clean reinstall).

Yes, I share the frustration as I use a lot of PPA’s for various pieces of software that I rely on, and I manage about 10 machines for myself and my lab. However, PPA’s are a convenience, and are not as stringently managed as the main repos (which is why the main repos are so far out of date always). I keep a text file with notes whenever I use a PPA for something, and then it’s easier to purge it and reinstall upun upgrade every couple of years (I only to LTS upgrades).

Plus, even though upgrades are pretty smooth these days, I have engrained in me the practice of “clean before upgrade” from the old days when chances were very high everything would break on upgrade, and most times you had to wipe and reinstall from scratch each time.

Have you looked at a solution like Ansible foranaging your machines?

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