Taking some time-out from budgie-remix matters, I’ve released an update to my plugin for rhythmbox called alternative-toolbar.
For those not in the know, this plugin gives rhythmbox a stylish makeover – introduces a compact bar for most desktops and a headerbar for GNOME based desktops.
In this release the following changes have been made:
- Option for dark theme
- Display Browse Categories horizontally or vertically
- Display app-menu correctly in budgie-desktop
- Updated translations from Launchpad.net
- correctly toggle search button via CTRL+F
- option to force the display of the app-menu if required
For a full list of extras that are available for rhythmbox users via this plugin have a look a the README.
But lets have some pretty pictures to explain what’s new.
Dark-theme – For those that like their media players with a dark-style there is a new option in the plugin-preferences.
Normally Rhythmbox displays its filter options above the music. For those of us without much vertical space to play with this doesnt allow us to see as much music in the grid-list. This new option allows for the filter options to be displayed on the left hand-side of the music list making much more use of a normal widescreen display.
For budgie-desktop users you may have noticed that the App-menu was not displayed in the same position as other GNOME apps … well that’s been fixed.
![ubuntu xenial [Running] - Oracle VM VirtualBox : 1_029](https://xpressubuntu.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/ubuntu-xenial-running-oracle-vm-virtualbox-1_029.png?w=584)
… and as an aside, there is a gsettings value to force the display of the app-menu if required.
The search button is now correctly toggle-able via the CTRL+F keystroke.
This version has also been accepted into Debian – so Yakkety users will see the plugin in the main repo soon.
For all 14.04, 15.10 and 16.04 users this version can be installed via my rhythmbox-plugins PPA:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:fossfreedom/rhythmbox-plugins sudo apt update sudo apt install rhythmbox-plugin-alternative-toolbar
xpress-ubuntu 
Hi.
I installed everything (and updated it). I do have the required files in the directory mentionned in the last post. However, Dark Theme never shows up. I’m on Bionic Beaver and there is a tickbox stating: “Dark theme if available” (which I have ticked, because it was unticked). I restart Rhythmbox, and still nothing happens.
Am I doing something wrong?
The theme you are using must have a dark variant. Many themes now have removed the ability to respond to a dark theme request. This is because the GOT devs have obsoleted this capability. They now expect you to set a theme for the desktop.
Thank you. I will try it just for kicks, since I switched to another program that resembles winamp (which was my all-time favorite media player for handling audio).
I installed as per your terminal instructions but do not see the plugin listed in Rhythmbox. Any suggestions.
Do make sure you have got a .plugin file in /usr/lib/rhythmbox/plugins/alternative-toolbar otherwise it will not be visible
Yes, in /usr/lib/rhythmbox/plugins/alternative-toolbar there is a file named alternative-toolbar.plugin as well as a bunch of .py files and a pycache folder.
that’s fine. It should appear in the rhythmbox plugins window. If it still isnt there, see if there are any errors shown when running rhythmbox from a terminal. should give you a clue.
Perfect. It turned out that rhythmbox wasn’t closed – it was sitting in my tray oon my panel. So after restarting it, the plugin showed up. Thanks!
It was great this theme.
Disregard my previous comment, I had to enable the source toolbar.
It looks like you can only search when the “modern” option is enabled (so when using a headerbar). Am I doing something wrong or is this a bug?