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How to Enable Dark Gnome Shell Menus, Calendar in Ubuntu 20.04

Last updated: April 6, 2020

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Ubuntu 20.04 introduces new dark mode in the Settings utility. It is however not full dark when you turn it on in Gnome Shell.

System tray menu, top-bar calendar, notification popups, and desktop context menu are not dark but always light when you switching between light, dark, and standard modes.

Enable Full Dark Theme in Ubuntu 20.04:

1.) First install user themes Gnome Shell extension.

It was able to install the extension simply via Ubuntu Software when I was in Ubuntu 18.04. Ubuntu 20.04 however shows me “No Application Found” when I searching for user themes in the new Ubuntu Software (Snap Store).

  • As a workaround, open Firefox web browser and go to https://extensions.gnome.org:

    Click the link text “click here to install browser extension” and follow the pop-ups to install the browser extension:

    shell browser extension

  • Then open terminal via Ctrl+Alt+T and run command: 
    sudo apt install chrome-gnome-shell

  • Finally go to https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/19/user-themes/.

    Turn the switch on and then select install the Gnome Shell extension:

    User Themes extension

2.) Install Gnome Tweaks if you have it.

sudo apt install gnome-tweaks

3.) Finally launch Gnome Tweaks and navigate to Appearance in the left pane, choose Yaru-dark as the Shell theme and done!

And of course select Dark in System Settings -> Appearance to get dark applications if you don’t have it.

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    11 responses to How to Enable Dark Gnome Shell Menus, Calendar in Ubuntu 20.04

    1. Charlie April 15, 2020 at 4:50 pm

      works for me!!!!

    2. gary sarki April 23, 2020 at 11:09 pm

      works on ubuntu 18.04!

    3. Emre Şan April 28, 2020 at 12:42 pm

      this is the greatest tip I’v ever heard’!

    4. Callum April 30, 2020 at 12:50 am

      I first noticed this when I was playing some music with spotify, now everything is perfect thank you!

    5. Fredy May 9, 2020 at 3:22 am

      It’s work for me.. good guidelines..

    6. Francoise Labelle May 13, 2020 at 6:31 pm

      Adwaita Dark does not need the User theme extension.
      On my laptop, with 20.04, the menus of Yaru Dark are dark (without User theme extension), not so on my PC. Strange…
      The proposed user theme works on the PC but I don’t really understand what’s going on.

    7. thiyagi June 9, 2020 at 2:47 pm

      Nice, it works!!

    8. Dr Kurian July 26, 2020 at 11:19 am

      worked for me, Thank you

    9. Cesar October 10, 2020 at 4:04 pm

      Works for me!
      10 oct 2020
      Thank you

    10. Marcus January 10, 2021 at 11:43 am

      Worked for me also. Thanks a lot!
      NAME=”Ubuntu”
      VERSION=”20.04.1 LTS (Focal Fossa)”

    11. Ben April 21, 2022 at 5:52 pm

      Thank you!