Add PPAs

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:tista/plata-theme # Light & Dark theme
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:papirus/papirus # Icon theme

Install packages

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install plata-theme papirus-icon-theme fonts-roboto fonts-hack

Cinnamon: Automatic daylight rotation

In Cinnamon there is a new applet, which allows you to switch between light and dark themes automatically. To configure it, you should select Plata-Lumine and Plata-Noir for Light and Dark Mode respectively. For the icon theme switch between Papirus-Light and Papirus-Dark. I also prefer to configure automatic mode switching.

Select gtk2 inside “Qt5 Settings”. Also make sure to select the Papirus-Dark icon theme (some icons will be lighter to be better readible on dark backgrounds). And don’t forget to also apply the fonts for qt (also inside that dialog)…

Fonts in Cinnamon / KDE

• * / *: Roboto Regular 10
• Monospace / Fixed width: Hack Regular 10
• - / small: Roboto Light 9
• Document / -: Default with Sans Regular 10

Unify the themes…

Sadly I didn’t found a truly universal theme for all editors - so here a list of used ones:

• XED, Kate - Solarized Dark
• Netbeans - Norway Today
• Visual Studio Code - Dark+ / Light+

Also make sure to configure the following applications:

• Discord - Well, it works but only on startup…
• Thunderbird
• Firefox
• Signal
• Telegram

Animations

…should alwas be Blend.

Display the UEFI image at boot screen

Tested on Linux Mint Cinnamon 20 - it may breaks on major system upgrades. To prevent this use the automatic way: Install this script and it will be executed on every upgrade by apt.

1. Add the simple script to /etc/kernel/postinst.d/uefi_boot_image.sh (as root, that is not perfect - but good enough):

   #!/bin/bash
   if [ ! -f /sys/firmware/acpi/bgrt/image ]; then
       echo "Can't update UEFI boot logo, because the source image is not available."
       exit
   fi
   if [ ! -f /usr/share/plymouth/themes/mint-logo/logo.png ]; then
       echo "Can't update UEFI boot logo, because the target image is not available."
       exit
   fi
   
   echo "Updating UEFI boot logo..."
   
   echo "[1/6] Copying image to writeable location..."
   cp /sys/firmware/acpi/bgrt/image /tmp/
   
   echo "[2/6] Converting image to PNG..."
   mogrify -format png /tmp/image
   
   echo "[3/6] Backing up original image..."
   mv /usr/share/plymouth/themes/mint-logo/logo.png /usr/share/plymouth/themes/mint-logo/logo.png.bak
   
   echo "[4/6] Replacing image..."
   cp /tmp/image.png /usr/share/plymouth/themes/mint-logo/logo.png
   
   echo "[5/6] Rebuilding initramfs image..."
   update-initramfs -u -k all
   
   echo "[6/6] Cleanup..."
   rm /tmp/image
   rm /tmp/image.png
   
   echo "Done."
   

2. Mark it as executeable and secure it:

   sudo chmod 550 /etc/kernel/postinst.d/uefi_boot_image.sh