Customizing Icons

MrT10001

@Salah To access the file system and change it you have to make the system rewritable. This is not advised as it will break your system. It will also stop future OTA updates.

Ian

@MrT10001 Or you could make the file system writrable. Make the changes you want and take backup copies to your PC along with a note of where they need to be. Then remount the filesytem as read only.

OK the next OTA would probably wipe your changes, but you can put them back from your PC.

ikoz

@Salah Another way is to edit the port. In the overlay filesystem replace the images with a symbolic link to the home directory where you should put the files.
I know this is a bit overkill, will not persist after updates and is harder, but you don't have to remount the filesystem every time.

Keneda

@Ian
As OTA updates only concern files that where modified by Devs since last update, only those files are overwritten.

MrT10001

You could do all of these things, the caveat would be if you know what you are doing, so you should know the filesystem is not writeable and how to make it so, the risks involved and so on. I could do this so far and I know I would end up having a non-booting device and have to re-install as I am not a developer or even a script kiddie.

johndoe

@Salah
The others are competly right about the potential risks.
But I do not want to discourage you from hacking the device, if you wish to do so and if you know that it could maybe break some things.

Put this in the terminal, if you want to have fun hacking and potentialy breaking your device:

sudo mount -o rw,remount /

Keneda

@johndoe
Or use Ubuntu Touch Tweak Tool ^^

Salah

Thank you guys for all your replies

I guess I do not wish to brick or screw my device.

But FYI, Nokia N900 AKA "The Monster" was and still the best Linux device ever created. Still have it as daily device for calling and texting as well as working around and changing themes & icons in the most easiest way.

Hope next update will allow us to change themes & icons as well.

It is not a rocket science.

in my Laptop I have changed a LOT of icons without breaking it by upcoming updates.

Thanks again folks

arubislander

@Salah said in Customizing Icons:

Hope next update will allow us to change themes & icons as well.

I wouldn't count on it. Customizability of the look and feel of the OS is not (high) on the agenda for UT.

It is not a rocket science.

I would have to disagree. Because this is simple to do in some Linux desktop environments does not mean it is simple to implement or to maintain.

There are also on the desktop quite a few Linus DE's or Distro's that discourage customization. Elementary OS with their Pantheon DE come to mind. But even Gnome is moving more firmly in this directions.

Officially allowing customization represents a bigger QA testing and support burden. This is not something the community can bear at the moment.

Having said all of that, there are community members that have dug in and gone all out customizing Lomiri according to their view and liking. One such member even offers a convenient way to install their customizations.

Keneda

@Salah
I don't think changing some icons is the kind of customisation that could break the system

Salah

@arubislander I see, Thank God I am using Ubuntu Mate which allows customization and freedom of changing appearance as per user's tase.

If Gnome and other distros going to be firm and strict regarding customization and thinking about Q/A. Then what makes difference than using windows 11 or other Mac. with boring UI and boring themes and so.

It is not a burden from my point of view. Check previous Ubuntu and Ubuntu Mate distros and will figure out what I am talking about.

Thanks again.

Salah

@Keneda This is suppose to be as per your saying.

I do not know.

arubislander

@Salah I have been using Ubuntu since 2004, so I know what you are talking about. I am not saying that one approach is better or worse than another. I am just explaining the differences.

On another note, I downloaded the Papirus icon back onto my Jingpad and copied it to ~/.local/share/icons. I then made a symbolic link to it in the same directory and called that suru. Upon a reboot the indicator icons where changed, but the application icons remained the same. So at this moment I am not sure if there is an easy way to change all those in one go.

EDIT: The icons in the App Drawer cannot be replaced in one go, because the .desktop files are pointing at hardcoded icon paths instead of icon names.

AppLee

@Salah said in Customizing Icons:

I see, Thank God I am using Ubuntu Mate which allows customization and freedom of changing appearance as per user's tase.

Ubuntu Touch is not a desktop distribution and maintaining and OS for mobile devices is not the same as desktop computers.
(Well technically laptop are mobile devices, but you get what I mean)

Also you still have freedom to do whatever you want.
You just don't have the skills or knowledge (yet)...

Asking questions about how the OS works in order to make a change that will benefit the community is greatly appreciated.
But it implies you want to put time and efforts into doing things without compromising the work of other contributors to the OS, what we call "the proper way". The work will be reviewed and merged if our quality standards are met.

I hope this clarifies things.

Salah

@arubislander Thanks for your reply

Can you show me pictures?

Thanks

Salah

@AppLee Thanks for your reply.

Am still learning how to use Ubuntu Touch and hope next version will be more functional.

AppLee

Hi @Salah

No problem

But be aware of the word you choose.
Customization is clearly not part of something being functional.

Ubuntu Touch is functional, I daily drive it and I'm not carrying an Android device with me all the time.
Sure there are some trade off but it is expected when you want control over your privacy.

It's more convenient to follow direction than to make hard decisions.

Also in a community based on volunteer work, "hope" will get you nothing, but you're welcome to help or try (and the community will help you back).

arubislander

@Salah no, sorry I have since then reverted my changes, as I did not like the result.

wally

There was an app called Custom Phablet Tools that let you change your icons. It wasn't updated to 20.04, but I still have it working on a Oneplus 5T running 16.04.
https://open-store.io/app/custom-phablet-tools.kazord

It has a bunch of set icon packs, which are quite incomplete and out of date. There's no built-in way to add your own icons or to edit these packs within the app, but if somebody took on maintaining that app, perhaps they could change that. First thing would be to bring it to 20.04 of course.
I have no sense of how hard this is, and no skills to help. Just thought it might be a safer way to try to go about this if you don't wanna go the hacky routes.

But of course this requires somebody doing it, and the devs are a bunch of volunteer superheros who're already working on a bunch of very important and difficult sounding things like VoLTE, 5G, a newer browser, updating to 24.04, etc.

ikoz

@wally Just ported the app to 20.04, changing icons works!
This is the new repository: https://gitlab.com/ikozyris/custom-phablet-tools,
I plan to publish it to the open store if it works for others as well.
Took me ~2 hours.
I might add a way to add custom icons, currently they are downloaded from https://framagit.org/ubuntouch-fr-dev/custom-phablet-tools/raw/media/icons/[APP-NAME.EXTENSION].