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Make KDE and Gnome and firefox work together

I am writing this how to for other people that want KDE, Gnome and Firefox to work together really well.

This is all from memory, so I could be wrong in a couple of spots.

First I guess my reasoning for all of this

  1. I really like KDE, and the interface it has
  2. I like KDE tools
  3. I really like the simplistic look of gnome
  4. I like some of gnome's most popular tools
  5. I can't live without firefox

The problems I am having

  1. KDE fonts look great, konqueror, looks good, but I find it annoying, I mean I can't even spell it
  2. Gnome fonts look absolutely crap (without doing what I explain in this guide)
  3. Firefox works really well with Gnome, but hates KDE, I have tried the themes in firefox to make it _look_ like KDE but its just fruitless

The Solution

  1. Use clearlooks in kde, it looks good, and its a port of clearlooks in Gnome
  2. Use clearlooks in gnome
  3. Set up the same fonts in gnome as in KDE
  4. Use the same font rendering in KDE and Gnome
  5. Set up the same screen DPI in Gnome and KDE and X

Use clearlooks theme in KDE

Install the theme: 

$ sudo apt-get install kde-style-klearlook

Set up the theme:

  1. Control Center - Appearance & Themes - Style - Klearlook
  2. Control Center - Colors - Color Scheme - Clearlooks

Use clearlooks in gnome

The following should get you all the packages you need to run gnome well: 

$ sudo apt-get install gnome-bin gnome-control-center gnome-desktop-data \
   gnome-icon-theme gnome-keyring gnome-libs-data gnome-menus \
   gnome-mime-data gnome-themes gnome-themes-extras

Configure gnome for clearlooks: 

$ gnome-control-center
  Theme - Clearlooks

Set up the same fonts in gnome as in KDE

This part is important, because we use the gnome-font-properties program in order to figure out what DPI looks good, and what font rendering looks good.

Now check in your KDE Control Center - Appearance and Themes - Fonts to see what font you are using, and what size.

I am using Bistream Vera Sans everywhere, 11 point, and Bitstream Vera Sans Mono 11 point as my Fixed width font. 

$ gnome-font-properties

So, set the font properties in the Gnome Font Preferences window to that of what you set up in the KDE Control Center font properties.

(Basically we are copying the settings from KDE to Gnome)

Use the same font rendering in KDE and Gnome

Keep the above font properties Gnome and KDE windows open.

KDE does not have a good font preview application as far as I know, so we use Gnome's one. Which is a really cool program.

So, in Gnome's Font Preferences, choose the best looking Font Rendering that you can see. I use Subpixel smoothing because it looks best on my LCD.

Next:

  1. Go to your KDE Control Center - Fonts
  2. Choose Use anti-aliasing for fonts
  3. Click configure, and use the same settings you set up in your Gnome Font Preferences window

Set up the same screen DPI in Gnome and KDE and X

Screen DPI in its simplest form controls the size of rendering of everything on your screen, this includes fonts.

The higher the DPI, the bigger the fonts. In this example we will set the DPI up for 75 DPI, that is what I prefer myself, the smaller the better.

Usually people choose between 100 and 75 DPI, but X or your driver tries to figure out whats best based on what it detects from your monitor.

So we can do this 2 ways:

  1. Modify the xorg.conf file, setting the DPI within the configuration
  2. Modify KDM startup so that we append the -dpi option, forcing X to use a particular DPI

I use the second, but first you should see what DPI you are using: 

$ xdpyinfo | grep resolution
  resolution:    100x100 dots per inch

If yours is already at the resolution you want, then you don't need to modify anything in X

Otherwise, force the resolution to 75DPI 

$ vi /etc/kde3/kdm/kdmrc
  
  set the variable:
  ServerArgsLocal=-dpi 75

$ /etc/init.d/kdm stop
$ /etc/init.d/kdm start

Ok! Now to modify gnome's DPI to match X (and KDE), we do this inside gnome-font-properties 

$ gnome-font-properties

In Font Preferences, Click Details. At the top you have Resolution. Set this resolution to 75DPI (or whatever you have chosen as your default)

Load firefox, and remove any theme you might have.

Now everything should be looking really good. Try some gnome apps.

One Last thing

You need to start the gnome-settings-daemon each time you start KDE. Otherwise your gnome settings will be lost each time you reboot.

So: 

$ ln -s /usr/bin/gnome-settings-daemon $HOME/.kde/Autostart/.

That's it, this works for me, enjoy!