Q4OS Forum

bin

Member

From: U.K.

Registered: 2016-01-28

Posts: 1,333

XPQ4 releases for that instant Windows experience on Debian Q4OS

The XPQ4 project doesn't get a lot of mention here, but their latest (sic) releases of Q4OS with their 'Windows Sauce' really are very good.
Out of the box the the Plasma based Win 10 version https://sourceforge.net/projects/xpq4/files/free10/ gives you a very nicely done theme if that is what you enjoy.
Likewise their more versatile TDE based FreeXP https://sourceforge.net/projects/xpq4/files/freexp/ gives you Windows 95 - Windows 7 depending on your choices.

OK they are just themes and icons, but if you're trying to win round folks to using linux and q4os then this is a great way of doing it with an instantly familiar look 'n feel out of the box!

Last edited by bin (2022-02-19 07:30)

Baloo

Member

Registered: 2022-03-10

Posts: 11

Re: XPQ4 releases for that instant Windows experience on Debian Q4OS

I have been drawn to Q4OS solely because of the XPQ4 package, but I am curious if anyone has been able to extract the entire themes separate from the weird script installer or the .deb file, to see if they are compatible with TDE installed on other systems than just Q4OS. I would like to see if you could port XPQ4 to other TDE systems (there are many), similar to how Chicago95 works. Has anyone done this successfully?

Also, if anyone is interested, the Pale Moon web browser has Firefox 2 and Firefox 3 themes that are available to use with the browser.

Additionally, there is a related email client called Interlink Mail & News which is a fork of Mozilla Thunderbird prior to Version 60 when full themes were tossed. It is compatible with older themes such as this Microsoft Office 2003 one, for anyone looking for a more complete cohesive look with XPQ4 as I do. You can find the Microsoft Office 2003 theme on the Thunderbird add-ons page for the moment.

There is also a rudimentary Libreoffice 2007 theme, but I haven't gotten that one working as of yet myself.

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baloo.neocities.org

bin

Member

From: U.K.

Registered: 2016-01-28

Posts: 1,333

Re: XPQ4 releases for that instant Windows experience on Debian Q4OS

I have been drawn to Q4OS solely because of the XPQ4 package, but I am curious if anyone has been able to extract the entire themes separate from the weird script installer or the .deb file, to see if they are compatible with TDE installed on other systems than just Q4OS. I would like to see if you could port XPQ4 to other TDE systems (there are many), similar to how Chicago95 works. Has anyone done this successfully?

Yes, did this on Bullseye, clean install CLI only then base install of TDE from Trinity repos.
It is not too hard. The bit that takes the work is manually moving the various theme bits into the right places.
My intent at the time was purely the W7 theme.

Baloo

Member

Registered: 2022-03-10

Posts: 11

Re: XPQ4 releases for that instant Windows experience on Debian Q4OS

Thanks so much Bin. Could you tell me exactly where the various theme files for XPQ4 are located?

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baloo.neocities.org

bin

Member

From: U.K.

Registered: 2016-01-28

Posts: 1,333

Re: XPQ4 releases for that instant Windows experience on Debian Q4OS

OK.

If you look at the installer script for xpq4 you see it needs
https://sourceforge.net/projects/xpq4/f … a1_all.deb
https://sourceforge.net/projects/xpq4/f … _amd64.deb
https://sourceforge.net/projects/xpq4/f … a1_all.deb

There are dependencies as follows:
libc6, q4os-desktop (>= 3.0), q4os-fonts-noto, fonts-noto-core, fonts-noto-ui-core, fonts-noto-mono, fonts-liberation, tde-style-q4oststyle01-trinity, tde-style-q4oststyle02-trinity, tde-style-qtcurve-trinity, kde-style-qtcurve-qt5, twin-style-crystal-trinity, luna, dmz-cursor-theme, waterleaf-icon-theme, q4os-nuvola-icons.
However these have to be read with a pinch of salt because all they do is provide parts of the look n feel.

What I did was to just go to the Q4OS pool and download those debs that are not in the main Debian repos and just unpack them as required into my /home locations.

A deb file is just a compressed set of data with instructions as to where that data has to go. It just reads a path and dumps it into that path - overwriting any existing items.
Remember that Q4OS uses a different .config approach to avoid clashes with config files from different desktop environments.

So, Trinity stuff goes in .configtde
In the normal world that does not exist and so you have to be aware that anything in the setup for XPQ4 that wants to go to .configtde would have to go to .config instead. That is important in how the themes are applied.
I use engrampa for archive file handling because it behaves exactly as I expect unlike stuff like xarchiver which is a pain. I advise you to do the same.

If you put the xpq4 deb file in a folder somewhere extract it you will see the structure of the files to be copied. You cannot just install the deb on non-Q4 as it checks for your version.

As root you then just have to copy the contents to the correct location on your Debian set up.

Now, the magic sauce is all in /opt/trinity/share/apps/kthememanager/themes/
This contains tar.gz files of the configs for the relevant themes which in Q4OS are installed via the installer app, but which of course won't work with normal Debian.
So, you have to decide which look you want and then unpack the tgz - remembering the .config bit, and copy the theme to your local ./trinity/share/apps/kthememanager/themes/

That's pretty well all I recall doing - it was a while back. I suggest you try this in a VM - snapshot so you can revert easily.
https://www.q4os.org/forum/viewtopic.php?id=3565 may prove interesting.

Baloo

Member

Registered: 2022-03-10

Posts: 11

Re: XPQ4 releases for that instant Windows experience on Debian Q4OS

Thanks for this info, this is incredibly helpful. I see the way Q4OS is structured the theme files won't copy over onto another system with TDE installed as easily...good to know.

On another somewhat relevant note, that is a very good custom login screen you have created looking almost identical to the Windows 7 login screen. Is there a similar one for XPQ4 that you have created?

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baloo.neocities.org

rafaelramos

Member

From: Brazil

Registered: 2016-07-19

Posts: 146

Re: XPQ4 releases for that instant Windows experience on Debian Q4OS

I started using Q4OS precisely because of XPQ4...

First I really liked the speed of Q4OS running under Trinity, and when I discovered XPQ4 it was love at first sight!

It's like reactivating my affective memory from the 90's when I started using computers and operating systems (MS DOS 6.22, Windows 3.11, Windows 95, Windows 98 SE, Windows Millennium, Windows 2000, Windows XP...).

It's very inspiring and satisfying for me to work with the classic "Redmond" interface...

And so the Q4OS/XPQ4 suite has become my favorite Linux Distro for corporate use.

bin

Member

From: U.K.

Registered: 2016-01-28

Posts: 1,333

Re: XPQ4 releases for that instant Windows experience on Debian Q4OS

On another somewhat relevant note, that is a very good custom login screen you have created looking almost identical to the Windows 7 login screen. Is there a similar one for XPQ4 that you have created?

http://u.pc.cd/AgvrtalK  - this is on pCloud

This is based on the original work of Jonson 2050 I have just added a few bits and changed a few bits.
Mine is done on the basis of a 1920x1080 screen
If you look at the background.png you'll it has the base elements over which are laid the actual login boxes and other controls for tdm. They are positioned in the .xml file and you'll just need to experiment if you're using a different resolution.

Works for any TDE install.
You'll need to install tdmtheme-trinity
That will put some files in /opt/trinity/share/apps/tdm/themes
Extract the folder from the attached and as root/su copy it to that location.
Go to Control centre>System Administration>TDM Theme Manager>Administrator Mode
Check enable TDM Themes
Select the Redmond 7 login theme and OK.
Reboot.

Enjoy

Last edited by bin (2022-04-02 11:04)