On Fri, 22 Jun 2018 09:17:34 -0700
William Morder <doctor_contendo@...> wrote:

> I don't know if these issues are really connected; I only know that they seem 
> to occur together. Feel free to separate the two issues if that is more 
> accurate. 
> 
> Issue #1
> I noticed that my system colors are not applied to some applications. In 
> particular, the Firefox/Iceweasel and Seamonkey browsers. Sometimes when I 
> start up, these take on my KDE4 Plasma color settings (even when KDE4 is not 
> installed); sometimes (maybe one-third to one-half of my installations), 
> everything in the GUI is white, sort of like in Gnome desktops that I've 
> seen. (Again, Gnome is not installed, though I do use some standalone 
> applications.) I can make PaleMoon take on my TDE color scheme settings, and 
> when I uncheck the button that says "apply to non TDE applications", etc., 
> it, too, turns all white like these other apps; however, PaleMoon never takes 
> on the color scheme from the KDE4 Plasma desktop. And then, at other times, 
> after I install I get my TDE settings. (Maybe one out of ten installations, I 
> will have Seamonkey and Firefox/Iceweasel use my TDE color scheme settings.) 
> Then again, sometimes they will use my KDE4 settings. Both are available in 
> my TDE desktop, but only KDE4 settings are available in that desktop. 

Sounds like you're hitting a familiar problem with Linux GUI applications:
they're all built with different widget sets, and attempts to transfer the colour
schemes for different sets around are fraught.

Currently, there are no less than three versions of QT and two of GTK in
common use, and I find the only way to get them to behave themselves is
to configure them all separately.  Browsers in the Firefox family use GTK2
or GTK3, depending on which browser and which version.

Unfortunately, I never did find a nice GUI configurator for writing system
GTK configs without a GTK-based desktop installed.  QT3 is configured
through TDE, QT4 through KDE4 or the included Trolltech settings widget, 
and qt5ct works adequately for QT5.

> TDE
> Trinity Control Center/Colors
> x Apply colors to non-TDE applications
> 
> KDE4
> System Settings/Application Appearance/Colors/Options
> x Apply colors to non-KDE4 applications
> 
> I don't so much care if they use the KDE4 settings or the TDE color settings, 
> just so long as it's not white. This isn't just that I hate that my pretty 
> desktop is spoiled; I started using these settings because a white screen 
> triggers a migraine - especially when I am working late at night in a dark 
> room. I impose dark screen settings on my default browsers and other 
> applications, too, for this reason. Also, there is a practical reason: 
> whenever I see a white screen, this usually reminds me that I have opened 
> that application as root, so that I am sure to be careful I don't really mess 
> up or delete stuff. 

Yeah, sounds about right--I've been setting up my desktops with white text
on black/blue for more than twenty years for similar reasons.

Try unchecking those two boxes you mention first.  Then create a file .gtkrc-2.0 
in your user's home directory and put the following in it:

gtk-color-scheme = "bg_color: #000044\nfg_color: #fff\nbase_color: #000\ntext_color: #fff\nselected_bg_color: #0ff\nselected_fg_color: #000\ntooltip_bg_color: #0ff\ntooltip_fg_color: #000"

If that causes an abrupt colour change in your browser chrome, it should be
easy enough to work it into a more standard colour scheme by adjusting the
hex.  If not, we may have a little more work to do (my file is actually a lot more
extensive and defines a variation on the standard Industrial style, because that
was the easiest way to get usable scrollbars with such dark colours).

Styling GTK3 is not that easy, unfortunately--it took me just under 400 lines
of CSS to get something I could live with.  I can hand my file over to you to
play with if it turns out you need it (the colour information is exposed at the
top, so fairly easy to change).

> It occurred to me to try to purge the offending applications, then to try to 
> reinstall them from within the KDE4 desktop environment, and to do the same 
> within TDE, but this made no difference. Thus far, my only options are either 
> to live with the lack of color, or to reinstall my system yet again, and hope 
> for the best. 
> 
> Issue #2
> This may or may not be related; it could be a permissions problem. I now find 
> that some of my external hard drives cannot be mounted or used, because I can 
> only access them as root. Even if I wanted to use them as root, it means that 
> I cannot access music files with my media player, for example. Again, this 
> has happened before, though not often, usually after a fresh installation. In 
> the past, it seems the only cure is to reinstall everything. However, since 
> I've not got this Devuan Jessie system working pretty well, I don't want to 
> mess up a good thing, especially if there is an easy fix. 
> 
> I've already tried changing permissions, and that sort of thing. I am guessing 
> that there might be some kind of config files buried somewhere. I've 
> searched, but thus far I can find nothing. 

My first instinct would be to check /etc/fstab for missing "user" options and 
any odd umasks.  Also, udev does funky things with permissions sometimes.  
Of course, I'm using a different distro without an automounter, so I may be
way off-base.

E. Liddell