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Get a classic Human theme for your Ubuntu 17.04 MATE desktop.

Human theme for a modern Ubuntu MATE desktop

The Ubuntu MATE desktop is capable of using quite a few nice themes, but not everyone remembers the classic Human theme from old versions of Ubuntu. But it can be installed on a modern Linux desktop. This is how to get it installed.

jason@Yog-Sothoth:~$ sudo apt install human-theme human-icon-theme 
[sudo] password for jason: 
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  bbswitch-dkms dkms lib32gcc1 libc6-i386 libcuda1-340 libgconfmm-2.6-1v5 libgraphicsmagick-q16-3 libunique-1.0-0 libva-glx1 libxine2 libxine2-bin libxine2-doc
  libxine2-ffmpeg libxine2-misc-plugins libxine2-plugins libxine2-x libxnvctrl0 linux-headers-4.10.0-19 linux-headers-4.10.0-19-generic linux-headers-4.10.0-32
  linux-headers-4.10.0-32-generic linux-headers-4.10.0-33 linux-headers-4.10.0-33-generic linux-headers-4.10.0-35 linux-headers-4.10.0-35-generic
  linux-headers-4.10.0-37 linux-headers-4.10.0-37-generic linux-headers-4.10.0-38 linux-headers-4.10.0-38-generic linux-image-4.10.0-19-generic
  linux-image-4.10.0-32-generic linux-image-4.10.0-33-generic linux-image-4.10.0-35-generic linux-image-4.10.0-37-generic linux-image-4.10.0-38-generic
  linux-image-extra-4.10.0-19-generic linux-image-extra-4.10.0-32-generic linux-image-extra-4.10.0-33-generic linux-image-extra-4.10.0-35-generic
  linux-image-extra-4.10.0-37-generic linux-image-extra-4.10.0-38-generic linux-signed-image-4.10.0-19-generic linux-signed-image-4.10.0-32-generic
  linux-signed-image-4.10.0-33-generic linux-signed-image-4.10.0-35-generic linux-signed-image-4.10.0-37-generic linux-signed-image-4.10.0-38-generic
  screen-resolution-extra
Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove them.
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  human-icon-theme human-theme
0 to upgrade, 2 to newly install, 0 to remove and 18 not to upgrade.
Need to get 1,039 kB of archives.
After this operation, 5,566 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://au.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu zesty/universe amd64 human-icon-theme all 0.36 [980 kB]
Get:2 http://au.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu zesty/universe amd64 human-theme all 0.39.2 [58.8 kB]
Fetched 1,039 kB in 1s (1,017 kB/s)   
Selecting previously unselected package human-icon-theme.
(Reading database ... 552425 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../human-icon-theme_0.36_all.deb ...
Unpacking human-icon-theme (0.36) ...
Selecting previously unselected package human-theme.
Preparing to unpack .../human-theme_0.39.2_all.deb ...
Unpacking human-theme (0.39.2) ...
Setting up human-icon-theme (0.36) ...
Setting up human-theme (0.39.2) ...

Then select it in the appearance options.

Selecting the Human theme in the appearance dialog.
Selecting the Human theme in the appearance dialog.

The window title bar and border is gray instead of the classic Human color, but this looks exactly the same as the original Human theme. Well worth installing.

Ubuntu 17.04 MATE desktop with Human theme.
Ubuntu 17.04 MATE desktop with Human theme.

And this is what the desktop looks like using this theme.

Install some classic Ubuntu wallpapers this way.

jason@Yog-Sothoth:~$ sudo apt install ubuntu-wallpapers-lucid ubuntu-wallpapers-karmic ubuntu-wallpapers-maverick

They can be found in this directory: /usr/share/backgrounds/. That will add to the feel of a older Ubuntu release.

1 thought on “Get a classic Human theme for your Ubuntu 17.04 MATE desktop.”

  1. That’s a great article especially for the nostalgics amongst us! :)

    I had the same issue with the colors being gray and all, and I think I figured out a way to fix it. By default, the theme is trying to load the original colors defined in the gtkrc file of the theme folder, but for some reason it fails to do so.

    You can bypass this behavior and update the metacity-theme-1.xml file stored in the theme folder simply by replacing all values containing “gtk:[……]” with the respective color values from the gtkrc file.

    For instance, color=”shade/gtk:bg[SELECTED]/0.4″ becomes color=”shade/#D6722D/0.4″; color=”blend/gtk:fg[NORMAL]/gtk:bg[NORMAL]/1.2″ becomes color=”blend/#101010/#efebe7/1.2″, etc.

    And voilà, your vintage Human theme looks as close as it gets to the way it used to back in the day!

    Reply

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