Is theming reliable?

No, I'd stay away from themeing. The software breaks in about every update, the maker of duality is inheriently lazy and Aqua looks pretty nice, but this is a nice addition to the forum...

Merry Christmas / Day Before Kwanzaa Eve

Quit talking about things your ignorant about. Theme changing software hasnt broke due to an OS update yet. Theme resources have changed with OS updates and the reliable theme devs update their themes accordingly. Colin is not lazy hes does a good job of listening to user requests and now with ThemeChanger from Cliche' software, switching themes has gotten easier than ever.

If you have any specific reservations about trying themes, email me and I'll answer any questions you may have.

Theme Park is getting even better.

Anyone remember the days of theming with some of the EARLY OSX theme tools? Ugh.

Dude, I was half kidding and half not...

First, Duality broke 10.2.3 (or other way around if you want to put it that way) so I wouldn't talk about your knowledge

Second, Yes I was [Sarcasm-ing] goMac (ie Colin) Duality does work quite well, but it still has the ability to bork a system...so

Chill Out

Merry Christmas Eve / Kwanzaa

Or when I used to release themes as installable .pkg's ?

I wasnt ripping you, saying someone is ognorant about something is far different from calling them stupid or somehting like that; it simply means your knowledge is not correct. And it wasnt Duality that broke with the update it was a theme file which wasnt updated and Duality did as it was told and switched the resources, even though they were not the correct ones. I used Duality with 10.2.3 so maybe yours was an isolated incident.

Sorry if I came off like an ass. I do that sometimes.

Themeing is a hack, anyone who uses Themes should realise this. You should switch back to Aqua before applying any OS updates (in the same way that you have too move all your Apple apps back to the places Apple expects them to be). I upgraded to 10.2.3 I then returned to the theme I was using before the update (even though it was the old 'pre-10.2.3 version) and every thing was fine.

I've never switched back to Aqua when updating my system, and it's never hurt anything. Unless you count Apple switching me back to Aqua as hurting :-] This latest update did create a weird mix of Aqua and the current theme, but it wasn't dangerous at all. I think themeing is relatively safe. You are supposed to keep a backup of your stuff on a seperate disc anyway.

I've had themes mess up my computer twice. It gets to the login screen and then kicks me into the CLI. The first time I fixed up by just installing Jaguar and doing the same upgrade. Now that I have 10.2.2 it won't let me do the upgrade. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to fix this? I just want Aqua back


Brad

It wont let you upgrade to 10.2.3?

Email me
swizcore at mac dot com

I just borked my icebook with Duality 4. It reported that the theme was not compatible with my OS (which it is as I'm running it on my tower) and installed it anyway. On reboot the ibook would never get beyond the blank blue screen. Had to reformat and reinstall.

For some reason i seem to have fooked my system more than once with duality but not with other theming apps.

Themechanger seems to be promising though. Hopefully future versions of Duality 4 will be "better".

YMMV

I've had Fruitmenu 'bork' me once. So next time I go that route it'll be with more caution.

I'm interested in themeing and glad to see s/o is asking which themers are reliable. Providing the ability to easily revert back to Aqua can only be a plus.

How would one restore Aqua after having applied a theme? I'm using ThemeChanger and there is very little functionality in the software beyond applying the theme. There is no function to restore Aqua...how can I go about doing this?

The theme you downloaded should have come with a second theme called "Aqua Restore" or something to that effect. Put it into the Themes folder with the other theme and apply it using the theme changer as you do when you apply other themes. If it didnt come with an Aqua Restore I wouldnt use the theme, it points to a developer who isn't really concerned with the end user.

I'm scrwed now as well. I had next theme widgets that won't go away and i tried the new aquafix and it hosed duality leaving me with a permanent KDE theme. I can't get aqua back because duality just freezes now. So I have to use a KDE theme with next widgets and icons

Anyone know what files need to be replaced and their location to get aqua back?

<10.2.3>
AboutBox.tiff -/System/Library/CoreServices/loginwindow.app/Contents/Resources/AboutBox.tiff

BootPanel.pdf -/System/Library/CoreServices/SystemStarter/QuartzDisplay.bundle/Resources/BootPanel.pdf

BootX -/System/Library/CoreServices/BootX

Extras.rsrc -/System/Library/Frameworks/Carbon.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/HIToolbox.framework/Versions/A/Resources/Extras.rsrc

Finder.rsrc -/System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/Resources/Finder.rsrc

gotoH.tif -/System/Library/CoreServices/SecurityAgent.app/Contents/Resources/gotoH.tif

gotoN.tif -/System/Library/CoreServices/SecurityAgent.app/Contents/Resources/gotoN.tif

homeH.tif -/System/Library/CoreServices/SecurityAgent.app/Contents/Resources/homeH.tif

homeN.tif -/System/Library/CoreServices/SecurityAgent.app/Contents/Resources/homeN.tif

Localized.rsrc -/System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/Resources/English.lproj/Localized.rsrc

loginpanel.tiff -/System/Library/CoreServices/SecurityAgent.app/Contents/Resources/loginpanel.tiff

loginwindow.tiff -/System/Library/CoreServices/loginwindow.app/Contents/Resources/loginwindow.tiff

LogOut.tif -/System/Library/CoreServices/loginwindow.app/Contents/Resources/LogOut.tif

MacOSXart.tif -/System/Library/CoreServices/SecurityAgent.app/Contents/Resources/MacOSXart.tif

QuartzDisplay -/System/Library/CoreServices/SystemStarter/QuartzDisplay.bundle/QuartzDisplay

resetH.tif -/System/Library/CoreServices/SecurityAgent.app/Contents/Resources/resetH.tif

resetN.tif -/System/Library/CoreServices/SecurityAgent.app/Contents/Resources/resetN.tif

ShutDown.tif -/System/Library/CoreServices/loginwindow.app/Contents/Resources/ShutDown.tif

shutdownH.tif -/System/Library/CoreServices/SecurityAgent.app/Contents/Resources/shutdownH.tif

shutdownN.tif -/System/Library/CoreServices/SecurityAgent.app/Contents/Resources/shutdownN.tif

SystemIcons.rsrc -/System/Library/CoreServices/SystemIcons.bundle/Contents/Resources/SystemIcons.rsrc

There is a chance that you may need other resources, but these ones will get you back to Aqua enough to run a real Aqua Restore.

Thanks swiz, hopefully I can get those over and replace them. I'll let you know how it goes.

Err... okay, there's no way AquaFix could have "hosed" Duality... it's possible Duality managed to hose itself as a result of AquaFix, but if you run AquaFix and then just restart your computer without launching Duality, you should have Aqua back in all its lickable glory. In fact, my personal advice to you would be to trash Duality entirely and use ThemeChanger instead...

Either way the end result is duality was hosed after running aquafix meaning aquafix hosed duality. As stated above, I ran aquafix a few times and it did nothing to restore my aqua. It's as if my files have been altered permanently and cannot be overwritten by anything other then the next aqua restore. However, because of the aqaufix/duality issue, I can't run duality to use the next aqua restore.

Duality is trashed. I will try and replace each of the files listed above.

So use themechanger or if its a ".theme" use MetamorphX

ThemeChanger does .theme's too.

What's the best way to replace some the system files listed above? I can't modify most because they are in use. I can't do it in 9, because 9 see's them as .apps and I can't open them to get to their resource directory.

What I'm doing now is burnign a boot X CD like the back up one someone around here made. Is this the easiest way? I didn't think root could do it tho because the files would still be in use.

Yeah but MetamorphX is better and you don't have to change the location of the themes.

You can do it in OS 9. ".app" is seen as a folder. And you can do in root since root gives you permission to replace everything as well as damage your system if you're not careful.

Dace-I tired 9, everything was an .app and was seen as an application not a folder.

Anyways, I was able to do most of it in root. Everything is back to aqua except one thing, my computer icon in the fidner window is still NeXt style. How do i change the computer icon in the finder window? I believe I got all the files mentioned by swiz in the list above.

Thanks.

Ah, imac.icns, found it and I'm 100% back to aqua. Thanks guys

For future reference Kid you can just change permissions on the apps so that you are the owner. Thats what I do for theme development testing and it works fine so long as you arent doing any numbskull things to your system.

, I actually took that out of the list I posted for you since most themes dont touch it, i just remembered that my NeXT port does though. Sorry.

swiz, no biggie. Funny thing is, I went got duality (themeswithcer doesnt do .dlta) and it brought back your icons again. So something about your icons are haunting me. So what I did was replace those files whith the theme running to be sure they'd stick. It worked. I Logged out, login window was aqua and the finder iMac was aqua. So i gues now it's more offical that I'm aqua again then my previous post

Yes it does, and has done since v10.