Theme Daemon Extract

Current standalone status:

• The extracted code now builds as an independent Meson project from theme-daemon/.
• The standalone daemon keeps the theme, icon, cursor, font, Xft, GTK modules, and XSETTINGS logic.
• The standalone daemon now reads runtime settings from ~/.config/vaxp/theme-daemon.ini.
• Cursor changes are applied through both persistent config files and a live GTK runtime sync path, so running GTK applications update immediately.

Build:

cd theme-daemon
meson setup builddir
ninja -C builddir

Output binary:

• builddir/plugins/xsettings/theme-daemon

Config example:

• theme-daemon.ini.example

D-Bus control:

• Bus name: org.vaxp.ThemeDaemon
• Object path: /org/vaxp/ThemeDaemon
• Interface: org.vaxp.ThemeDaemon
• Methods: SetGtkTheme, SetIconTheme, SetCursorTheme, SetCursorSize, SetInterfaceMode, SetFontName, SetTextScalingFactor, Reload, GetConfigPath

Cursor handling notes:

• XSETTINGS and Xcursor are still updated for general desktop clients.
• The daemon also writes cursor settings to: ~/.config/gtk-3.0/settings.ini, ~/.config/gtk-4.0/settings.ini, ~/.gtkrc-2.0, and ~/.icons/default/index.theme.
• For immediate GTK updates, the daemon initializes GTK at startup and applies gtk-cursor-theme-name and gtk-cursor-theme-size through GtkSettings before refreshing the root-window cursor.

Interface mode notes:

• interface-mode is read from the [interface] section and accepts: system, light, or dark.
• The daemon syncs this mode to GTK runtime settings and to the per-user GTK config files so light and dark apply immediately and persist across new application launches.

Modern portal support:

• A dedicated backend now exists for org.freedesktop.impl.portal.Settings.
• It exports org.freedesktop.appearance/color-scheme from the same interface-mode value used by the theme daemon.
• Portal integration is installed for both vaxp and venom desktop IDs, so sessions exporting XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=Venom can select the backend.
• After installing portal files, restart xdg-desktop-portal in the user session before testing GTK4, Chrome, VS Code, or other modern apps.
• On xdg-desktop-portal 1.18.x, the Settings portal may still probe unrelated GTK/GNOME backends and fail before exporting org.freedesktop.portal.Settings. To avoid that on VAXP/Venom sessions, the installer also ships local gtk.portal and gnome.portal overrides that remove only the org.freedesktop.impl.portal.Settings interface, leaving the rest of those backends untouched.
• On the user's current system, xdg-desktop-portal reads portal configuration from /usr/local/share/xdg-desktop-portal, but it only scanned implementation descriptors from /usr/share/xdg-desktop-portal/portals. For that reason, the installer places the .portal files and D-Bus service registration in /usr/share so the backend is actually discoverable.
• This is the path used by newer GTK4 applications, browsers, and other modern clients that listen to the portal settings API instead of legacy XSETTINGS.

Post-install checklist:

1. Install the daemon and support files:

sudo bash install.sh

2. Make sure your session manager starts the daemon on login:

/usr/local/bin/theme-daemon

3. After every install or portal-related update, refresh the user portal environment and restart the portal services:

systemctl --user import-environment XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP DESKTOP_SESSION
systemctl --user restart xdg-desktop-portal.service
systemctl --user restart xdg-desktop-portal-gtk.service

4. Confirm the modern appearance portal is active:

gdbus introspect --session \
  --dest org.freedesktop.portal.Desktop \
  --object-path /org/freedesktop/portal/desktop

You should see org.freedesktop.portal.Settings in the output.

5. Confirm the exported color-scheme value:

gdbus call --session \
  --dest org.freedesktop.portal.Desktop \
  --object-path /org/freedesktop/portal/desktop \
  --method org.freedesktop.portal.Settings.Read \
  org.freedesktop.appearance color-scheme

Expected values:

• 0 = system
• 1 = dark
• 2 = light

6. Confirm the daemon config file exists:

~/.config/vaxp/theme-daemon.ini

7. If you change cursor, GTK theme, icon theme, or interface mode from your own control center, make sure it talks to the daemon D-Bus API instead of editing unrelated desktop settings.

8. If GTK4, Chrome, VS Code, or other modern apps do not react after a fresh install, restart those applications after step 3 so they reconnect to the active portal instance.

Notes:

• Legacy applications rely on the daemon's XSETTINGS and GTK config file sync.
• Modern applications rely on the Settings portal path.
• Both paths must be active for a fully consistent desktop.