All,
On first start of Firefox 151, the general theme (tab bar, url bar,
etc..) change from Dark to Light theme color. The setting for theme in
Firefox was set to Auto, as it had always been. To restore the dark
theme, I had to affirmatively select the Dark theme in settings. The
desktop is fluxbox. Firefox has always presented a dark theme there.
No changes were made to the desktop or desktop theme. Does anyone
know why Firefox would suddenly switch from using Dark to Light theme
with the setting for theme in Firefox set to Auto?
Is it the xdg-desktop-portal package? E.g.,
Required By : xdg-desktop-portal-gtk
Optional For : firefox
As a test I tried removing xdg-desktop-portal, but it fails
dependency checks now:
checking dependencies...
error: failed to prepare transaction (could not satisfy dependencies)
:: removing xdg-desktop-portal breaks dependency 'xdg-desktop-portal'
required by xdg-desktop-portal-gtk
As of 4/20/2026, I had no xdg-desktop-portal on my system as I was
comparing openSUSE and Arch checking an
GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.InvalidArgs bug thrown by
python/matplotlib on openSUSE.
See:
https://lists.opensuse.org/archives/list/[email protected]/thread/6H3CQ7ONDEML52VHSOOFEL55THLNPUUP/
So is the requirement for xdg-desktop-portal install new on Arch, and
was it intended as a hard dependency on all desktops, even the old ones
like fluxbox? If so, was this what changed the Firefox theme from Dark
to Light with Auto set?
I have no need for xdg-desktop-portal, and don't really want it. If
it's the problem, it's inclusion as a hard dependency seems contrary to
the KISS philosophy of Arch?
What say the experts?
--
David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E.
