theme not changing automatically in ubuntu 18.04 with unity DE

[itsjwala]

I have to manually do Automathemely seems like scheduler isn't kicking in?

[MuathAmer]

Same for me but on Gnome.

[itsjwala]

😞

[neekt]

I'm having the same issue on Linux Mint 19.2 Cinnamon desktop. Uninstalling then reinstalling (including a new configuration file) doesn't help. Happens with both manual and automatic location settings.

Right-clicking the icon I have pinned to my desktop panel and manually selecting 'Run AutomaThemely' works just fine.

[MuathAmer]

I have just replaced AutomaThemely with a simple script that i made a keyboard shortcut for, simpler and always works, as AutomaThemely is not 'auto' for me.

[neekt]

@MuathAmer, would you mind posting your code?

[MuathAmer]

@neekt It's for gnome so i don't know how it can help.
https://github.com/MuathAmer/mythemely

[neekt]

Thanks anyway, appreciated!

[neekt]

Another simple way I discovered for automating theme changes is to use Sunwait.

Once that's installed, you can set up cron jobs, something like (using your own lat/long and shell script locations):
00 16 * * * sunwait wait set 51.477932N 0.000000E; /home/<user>/scripts/night_themes.sh
0 4 * * * sunwait wait rise 51.477932N 0.000000E; /home/<user>/scripts/day_themes.sh

Where night_themes.sh contains something like this (on Linux Mint Cinnamon, for example):

gsettings set org.cinnamon.desktop.wm.preferences theme Mint-Y-Dark
gsettings set org.cinnamon.desktop.interface gtk-theme Mint-Y-Dark
gsettings set org.cinnamon.theme name Mint-Y-Dark

To change Window borders, Controls, and Desktop themes, respectively.

And because Ubuntu/Mint uses anacron by default, it should work even if the computer is powered off or sleeping at the time of the scheduled jobs, although I haven't actually tested this.

[itsjwala]

Thanks its good idea, but currently sticking with manually setting, as I found I am rarely using dark theme at night, and automathemely has nice ui to set things up.

[yerbestpal]

I would like to add that it doesn't seem to automatically run on bog standard Ubuntu 19.10 either.

[C2N14]

Might be something with python's scheduler, or maybe something with the systemd service.
If still relevant, would you be able to show the output of running systemctl list-timers?

I'm very sorry :S

[yerbestpal]

I am on Ubuntu MATE 20.04 now, so it isn't the same situation. Anyway, the output of systemctl list-timers is:

NEXT                        LEFT          LAST                        PASSED       UNIT                         ACTIVATES                     
Mon 2020-04-13 02:01:14 BST 1h 20min left Sun 2020-04-12 14:06:31 BST 10h ago      motd-news.timer              motd-news.service             
Mon 2020-04-13 06:50:32 BST 6h left       Sun 2020-04-12 14:06:31 BST 10h ago      apt-daily-upgrade.timer      apt-daily-upgrade.service     
Mon 2020-04-13 09:23:52 BST 8h left       Sun 2020-04-12 18:45:02 BST 5h 55min ago fwupd-refresh.timer          fwupd-refresh.service         
Mon 2020-04-13 15:11:00 BST 14h left      Sun 2020-04-12 20:55:28 BST 3h 45min ago apt-daily.timer              apt-daily.service             
Mon 2020-04-13 19:36:20 BST 18h left      Sun 2020-04-12 16:41:28 BST 7h ago       systemd-tmpfiles-clean.timer systemd-tmpfiles-clean.service
Tue 2020-04-14 00:00:00 BST 23h left      Mon 2020-04-13 00:37:28 BST 3min 15s ago logrotate.timer              logrotate.service             
Tue 2020-04-14 00:00:00 BST 23h left      Mon 2020-04-13 00:37:28 BST 3min 15s ago man-db.timer                 man-db.service                
Sun 2020-04-19 03:10:54 BST 6 days left   Sun 2020-04-12 14:06:31 BST 10h ago      e2scrub_all.timer            e2scrub_all.service           
Mon 2020-04-20 00:00:00 BST 6 days left   Mon 2020-04-13 00:37:28 BST 3min 15s ago fstrim.timer                 fstrim.service                
n/a                         n/a           Mon 2020-04-13 00:37:28 BST 3min 15s ago anacron.timer                anacron.service               

10 timers listed.
Pass --all to see loaded but inactive timers, too.

I don't have AutomaThemely installed currently, which presumably will affect these results.