How can I ensure that the theme and apps that I have installed on the admin account have transferred across to the secondary guest account?

Question

I am using Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS

I have setup an admin account and customised the theme to appear to be like Mac OS Mojave. Using GNOME Shell, Mojave CT Icons and also Plank to add a dock at the bottom of the screen.

I have then created a secondary user which is a guest account, this account will be used by one of my users. When logging into the account all customisations which I had changed on the admin account have been reset, forcing me to customise the guest account again. Is there a workaround where I can ensure all my applications and settings/tweaks are copied across all accounts created?

Thanks.

GDM is the display manager? Guest account? Do you mean a stadard account? — PRATAP, Sep 29 '20 at 11:37
Yes sorry. I have created an admin account and a standard account — Ajay Singh, Sep 29 '20 at 11:39
It will be easy if your settings to admin account are fixed and not time to time change.. — PRATAP, Sep 29 '20 at 11:43
I am doing it practically on my system.. Plank is a gnome-shell-extension? how did you install it? — PRATAP, Sep 29 '20 at 12:05
Does this answer your question? How do I set up new users with skel — user68186, Sep 29 '20 at 13:57
I've found a solution. Copying the theme & icon to /usr/share/icon & /usr/share/themes/. I can create a new user and load up the GNOME Tweak Tool and select the theme / icon set I have installed on my administrator account. — Ajay Singh, Sep 29 '20 at 15:26
Please write your solution as an answer, not a comment. Then accept your answer as correct by clicking on the gray check mark ✔️ and turn it green ✅. This will help others. — user68186, Sep 29 '20 at 22:11

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 29 '20 at 15:27

I Have tried it to have the same shell theme, icon theme and plank.

applying shell-theme was not successful but icon theme and plank are ok.

Install user-themes gnome-shell-extension as system-wide.
Install shell-theme and icon-theme also as system-wide.

First we need to compile the schemas for admin user as how we want it. In your case below is an example,

# Custom Settings for ADMIN ACCOUNT which will be used for standard users too
[org.gnome.shell]
enabled-extensions = ['user-theme@gnome-shell-extensions.gcampax.github.com']
[org.gnome.shell.extensions.user-theme]
name = 'Mojave-dark'
[org.gnome.desktop.interface]
icon-theme = 'Mojave-CT-Classic'

create a text file with above content and name it as 99_ADMIN_SETTINGS.gschema.override

move the above file to /usr/share/glib-2.0/schemas/ and then compile the schemas with below command

sudo glib-compile-schemas /usr/share/glib-2.0/schemas/

You can edit the above file with any gsetting keys you wish at any time. Any changes you made to above file, you need to compile the schemas.

At anytime you wish to have default values.. simply delete the file 99_ADMIN_SETTINGS.gschema.override and compile the schemas.

For plank.. copy the .desktop file of plank from /usr/share/applications to /etc/xdg/autostart with below command.

sudo cp /usr/share/applciations/plank.desktop /etc/xdg/autostart/

Tested in gnome-shell 3.36.6

How can I ensure that the theme and apps that I have installed on the admin account have transferred across to the secondary guest account?

1 Answers1