Archives For jimingkui

Mozilla Firefox has reached its 100th release! It has been more than 17 years since the first 1.0 was released in 2004.

Firefox 100 now supports for displaying subtitles in the pop-out video (Picture-in-Picture mode) for YouTube, Prime Video, and Netflix videos. Also, it supports video captions on websites that use WebVTT (Web Video Text Track) format, like Coursera.org, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and many more.

For macOS 11 with HDR-compatible screens, users can now enjoy HDR video on YouTube out-of-the-box, though you have NOT to enable “optimize video streaming while on battery”.

For Windows, hardware accelerated AV1 video decoding is enabled for support GPUs, including Intel Gen 11+, AMD RDNA 2 Excluding Navi 24, GeForce 30. Though, AV1 Video Extension from the Microsoft Store is required.

Other changes in Firefox 100 include:

  • Detect and offer choice if Firefox does not match system language on first run.
  • Add multiple languages support for spell checking.
  • Enable video overlay to reduce power usage for Windows user with Intel GPU.
  • Support credit card autofill and capture in the United Kingdom.
  • Ignore less restricted referrer policies
  • Choose preferred color schemes for websites.
  • Support for profiling multiple java threads
  • Add Geckoview APIs

Get Firefox 100:

For the release note as well as download link, go to Mozilla web site:

For Ubuntu users, Firefox 100 will be available in next few days. Just keep your system up-to-date and you’ll get the release soon.

For Ubuntu 22.04 (and old Ubuntu 16.04), you may install Firefox 100 as .deb from Mozilla Team PPA (Need to set PPA priority, see HERE for more).

Ubuntu’s default Rhythmbox music player finally released a new version with podcast improvements, code cleanup, and various bug-fixes.

It has been more than 2 years since the last release of Rhythmbox music player. The new Rhythmbox 3.4.5 comes with improvements to the podcast support:

  • Rewritten podcast downloader with better resume and retry
  • Use podcast episode GUIDs to handle episode URL changes
  • Fixes for feed description, album art, and downloading issue.

The release also ported DAAP plugin to libdmapsharing-4.0 API, enabled UTF-8 support in metadata scanner. The app ID has been renamed to “org.gnome.Rhythmbox3”. And, it has now switched to Meson for its building system.

Other changes include:

  • Remove soundcloud plugin, mmkeys plugin, and gnome-settings-daemon MediaKeys plugin
  • Song info ui, webremote plugin, and many other fixes.
  • And, translation updates. See more here.

How to Get Rhythmbox

Ubuntu usually won’t update the package for all current Ubuntu releases. So far, the only way to get Rhythmbox is using the Linux universal Flatpak package.

1. Press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run the commands below to install the Flatpak daemon:

sudo apt install flatpak

Ubuntu 18.04 and Ubuntu 16.04 need to add the Flatpak PPA first.

2. Next, all current Ubuntu releases may install the player by running the command below in terminal:

flatpak install https://dl.flathub.org/repo/appstream/org.gnome.Rhythmbox3.flatpakref

To avoid duplicated app icons, you may remove the system default package via sudo apt remove rhythmbox

Uninstall Rhythmbox flatpak

For any reason, you can remove the package easily by running the command below in terminal window:

flatpak uninstall org.gnome.Rhythmbox3

And cleanup unused runtimes via flatpak uninstall --unused.

Want to set a certain size of your desktop icons and/or change the spacing between them? Here’s how to do the job in Ubuntu 22.04.

Ubuntu 22.04 defaults to GNOME desktop 42 and uses an extension called “Desktop Icons NG” (DING in short) to handle shortcut icons on desktop.

It provides 4 icon sizes (“Tiny”, “Small”, “Normal”, and “Large”) in ‘Appearance‘ settings for choose from.

Change icon size via Appearance settings page

If somehow the default icon sizes do not meet you need, then you may edit the source file and customize the 4 sizes manually.

1. Edit the config file

Firstly, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run command to edit the file which is located in ‘/usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions/[email protected]/’ directory:

sudo gedit /usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions/[email protected]/enums.js

sudo is required as it’s a system wide extension and you need to type user password to authenticate when running the command.

When file opens, you’ll see the first line (except the comments) defines the icon sizes in pixels:

var ICON_SIZE = { ‘tiny’: 36, ‘small’: 48, ‘standard’: 64, ‘large’: 96 };

Just change the number 36, 48, 64 and 96 will replace the corresponding ‘tiny’, ‘small’, ‘normal’, and ‘large’ icon sizes.

And, change the numbers in lines of “ICON_WIDTH” and “ICON_HEIGHT” will adjust how large the square area that each icon takes. It’s the orange area when you drag and drop an icon, which can be useful if you want to change the icon spacing.

NOTE: The change will take place for all system users. For single user only, you may copy the extension folder to local directory ‘.local/share/gnome-extensions’. However, the option in “Appearance” won’t work for the local copy.

2. Apply change

After editing and saving the config file, search for and open “Gnome Extensions” app.

App to Manage your extensions

Install the tool via sudo apt install gnome-shell-extension-prefs command if you don’t have it.

When the app opens, turn off “Desktop Icons NG” extension and turn it on again will apply the changes you made in previous step.

Want to change the background wallpaper or just set another color for Ubuntu Gnome login screen? Here’s how to do the trick in Ubuntu 22.04 and Ubuntu 24.04!

As you may know, the GDM background is not easy to modify since GNOME hard-coded the CSS into a .gresource file. Thankfully, there’s now a graphical configuration tool can do the job for Ubuntu 22.04 and higher.

It’s GDM Settings, a free open-source tool not only for changing the background for GNOME login screen, but also supports for configuring login screen for following things:

  • Change the Fonts.
  • Tweak top-bar color, background.
  • Configure sound, mouse and touchpad.
  • Disable User list.


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HP printer and scanner drivers, HPLIP, released version 3.22.4 recently with a list of new devices support.

This release adds Manjaro 21.2 as well as following new printers support:

  • HP LaserJet Pro 4001ne, 4001n, 4001dne, 4001dn, 4001dwe, 4001dw, 4001d, 4001de,
  • HP LaserJet Pro 4002ne, 4002n, 4002dne, 4002dn, 4002dwe, 4002dw, 4002d, 4002de,
  • HP LaserJet Pro 4003dn, 4003dw, 4003n, 4003d, 4004d, 4004dn, 4004dw
  • HP LaserJet Pro MFP 4101dwe, 4101dw, 4101fdn, 4101fdne, 4101fdw, 4101fdwe
  • HP LaserJet Pro MFP 4102dwe, 4102dw, 4102fdn, 4102fdw, 4102fdwe, 4102fdne, 4102fnw, 4102fnwe
  • HP LaserJet Pro MFP 4103dw, 4103dn, 4103fdn, 4103fdw, 4104dw, 4104fdw, 4104fdn
  • HP ScanJet Pro 3600 f1
  • HP ScanJet Pro N4600 fnw1
  • HP ScanJet Pro 2600 f1
  • HP ScanJet Enterprise Flow N6600 fnw1

Download & Install HPLIP 3.22.4

HP provides official .run installer for all Linux users, simply download the package “hplip-x.xx.x.run” from the link page below:

Then right-click on the Downloads folder, select “Open in Terminal”, and finally run the installer via command:

./hplip-3.22.4.run

Follow the on screen prompts, and re-plug your printer when everything’s done successfully.

Install HPLIP 3.22.4 for Ubuntu 22.04:

The installer so far does not support Ubuntu 22.04. If you do require the new version, here’s how to manually install dependencies and built the package (Thanks to fostips).

Firstly, run the previous “./hplip-3.22.4.run” command will generate the source folder in Downloads. Right-click on it and select “Open in Terminal” to open terminal.

Next, run command to manually install dependency packages:

sudo apt install --assume-yes libcups2 cups libcups2-dev cups-bsd cups-client libcupsimage2-dev libdbus-1-dev build-essential ghostscript openssl libjpeg-dev libsnmp-dev libtool-bin libusb-1.0-0-dev wget python3-pil policykit-1 policykit-1-gnome python3-pyqt5 python3-dbus.mainloop.pyqt5 python-gi-dev python3-dev python3-notify2 python3 python3-reportlab libsane libsane-dev sane-utils xsane libavahi-client-dev libavahi-core-dev avahi-utils

Finally, run the commands below one by one in this terminal window to configure and build HPLIP (with source folder as working directory):

./configure --prefix=/usr --enable-qt5 --disable-qt4
make
sudo make install

It works in my case on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS.

Uninstall HPLIP 3.22.4

To remove the driver package, you need to first open terminal with source folder as working directory (See the last picture). When it opens, run the command to start uninstall script:

sudo ./uninstall.py

Same to the installing process, it will asks few questions to confirm during the process.

The hugin package is removed from Ubuntu 22.04 repository. For those need this free open-source panorama stitcher, here are 3 alternative methods to install it back. Just choose the one that you prefer.

Option 1: Hugin Flatpak package

The panoramic photo stitcher is available as the universal Flatpak package than runs in sandbox.

Flatpak package installs on most Linux, but it takes more disk space for run-time libraries!

Firstly, open terminal by searching it from the ‘Activities’ overview screen (or press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard):

When terminal opens, run the command below to install the daemon package first:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install flatpak

And finally install Hugin as flatpak using command:

flatpak install https://dl.flathub.org/repo/appstream/net.sourceforge.Hugin.flatpakref

As you see, the flatpak package will also install run-time libraries that take more disk space.

Option 2: Non-install AppImage package

There’s a non-install AppImage package available for Hugin. No installation required, just add executable permission and run the file will launch the tool.

Download the latest Hugin AppImage:

Then, give executable permission in file properties dialog and finally right-click run it to launch the app:

Option 2: Hugin PPA

For those prefer the classic .deb package, I’ve upload the package as well as dependencies into this Ubuntu PPA.

NOTE: Don’t know why Ubuntu 22.04 removed the package, but it still present in all Debian repositories. And the package in this PPA is just a backport from Debian Unstable. Use it at your own risk!

1. Press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run the command to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/apps

Type user password when it asks (no asterisk feedback) and hit Enter to continue.

2. Next, install the panorama photo stitcher by running the apt command below:

sudo apt install hugin

For Linux Mint and other Ubuntu based systems, you may need to run sudo apt update to refresh cache first.

How to Remove Hugin in Ubuntu 22.04

For the Flatpak package, uninstall it via command:

flatpak uninstall --delete-data net.sourceforge.Hugin

And remove unused run-times via flatpak uninstall --unused.

To remove Hugin PPA package, run the command below in terminal:

sudo apt remove --autoremove hugin

And remove the Ubuntu PPA using command:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/apps

Cheese, the default app for taking photos or recording via webcam, is not working properly in my case in Ubuntu 22.04.

By launching the app, webcam light turns on and persists only for a few seconds. Then it displays a blank screen with following text:

“There was an error playing video from the webcam”

According to the Ubuntu bug report and the upstream one, it seems to have something to do with the patch for MJPEG output support that causes issue on low end PC (I guess).

And, here are a few workarounds that works in my laptop with HP TrueVision HD Camera.

Workaround 1: Change output resolution

Firstly, launch Cheese and open “Preference” dialog from the hamburger menu. When it opens, change the resolution from 1280×720 to 640×480. Then close the app.

Next, launch Cheese again. It display a blank screen but camera light keeps on in my case. Continue decreasing the resolution until it works again. Then switch back a higher photo/video resolution.

However, the highest 1280×720 resolution produces a corrupted display just as the bug reported. While 640×480 works great in my case.

Workaround 2: Install Cheese 3.38 via Flatpak

The previous v3.38 does not has the issue. It’s available to install via the universal Flatpak package.

1. Firstly, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run command to install the daemon:

sudo apt install flatpak

2. Next, install Cheese as Flatpak using command:

flatpak install https://dl.flathub.org/repo/appstream/org.gnome.Cheese.flatpakref

There’ll be a few hundreds more MB run-time libraries to install for the first time.

Finally, run the command below to launch the Flatpak to see if it works:

flatpak run org.gnome.Cheese

3. (Optional) Remove the pre-installed Cheese package.

The make the app icon in search result to launch Cheese as Flatpak instead of the pre-installed package. You may remove the original package via command:

sudo apt remove cheese

And a system restart is required if you’re first time installing an app as Flatpak.

How to Restore

To remove the Flatpak package, use command:

flatpak uninstall --delete-data org.gnome.Cheese

And install back the original Cheese package using command:

sudo apt install cheese

Workaround 3: PPA with Cheese package (patched)

As @matthew.ruffell mentioned in the bug report, revert the commit will make it work again. This could be a workaround until the upstream fixed the issue. However, in my build the 1280×720 resolution just disappeared…

Ubuntu 22.04 has better support for the low latency PipeWire multimedia framework. Here’s how to setup it for PulseAudio, ALSA, JACK and Bluetooth output.

Firstly, Pipewire is pre-installed out-of-the-box, and runs as background service automatically. You may check it out by running command below in terminal:

systemctl --user status pipewire pipewire-session-manager

PipeWire installed out-of-the-box

IMPORTANT: This is NOT officially supported by Ubuntu so far. It still may not work on some devices. Don’t do it on production machine!

Step 1: install client libraries

Though available out-of-the-box, it’s not in use by default for audio output. To get start, first press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal, and run command to install client libraries:

sudo apt install pipewire-audio-client-libraries libspa-0.2-bluetooth libspa-0.2-jack

Step 2: install wireplumber to replace pipewire-media-session

The project maintainer now recommends more advanced “wireplumber” session manager when to use Pipewire as system sound server.

To install the package and remove “pipewire-media-session”, run the command below in terminal:

sudo apt install wireplumber pipewire-media-session-

NOTE: there’s a ‘-‘ in the end of the command indicates to remove the package. The command will also install the required pipewire-pulse automatically.

Step 3: Copy configuration files:

wireplumber makes things quite easy! If you just want to replace PulseAudio with Pipewire, enable the media session service and restart and that’s all!!

For ALSA clients to be configured to output via PipeWire, run command to copy the configure file:

sudo cp /usr/share/doc/pipewire/examples/alsa.conf.d/99-pipewire-default.conf /etc/alsa/conf.d/

For JACK client, run command:

sudo cp /usr/share/doc/pipewire/examples/ld.so.conf.d/pipewire-jack-*.conf /etc/ld.so.conf.d/

And then sudo ldconfig.

For Bluetooth, just remove the pulseaudio-module-bluetooth package via command:

sudo apt remove pulseaudio-module-bluetooth

And, finally enable the media session by running command:

systemctl --user --now enable wireplumber.service

Step 4: Verify

After restarted Ubuntu 22.04, run the command below in terminal.

pactl info

It should output Sound server: PulseAudio (on PipeWire x.x.x) indicates Pipewire is in use as sound output.

How to Restore:

To undo the changes, firstly remove the client libraries via command:

sudo apt remove pipewire-audio-client-libraries libspa-0.2-bluetooth libspa-0.2-jack

Remove wireplumber and install back the previous media session package (there’s also ‘-‘ in the end):

sudo apt install pipewire-media-session wireplumber-

Finally, re-enable pipewire-media-session service by running commands:

rm -f ~/.config/systemd/user/pipewire-session-manager.service
systemctl --user --now enable pipewire-media-session

Thanks to @lestcape, if sound’s still not working, try to disable pipewire-pulse services via command:

systemctl --user --now disable pipewire-pulse.service pipewire-pulse.socket

If you tried to enabled it globally, also disable it via command:

sudo systemctl --global --now disable pipewire-pulse.service pipewire-pulse.socket

And re-enable the original pulseaudio service via command:

systemctl --user --now reenable pulseaudio.service pulseaudio.socket
sudo systemctl --global --now reenable pulseaudio.service pulseaudio.socket

Installing Ubuntu is quite easy today using an USB stick. Here’s the step by step guide that shows the details about the installing process for those new to this operating system.

Step 1: Create boot-able USB installer

We usually burn the Ubuntu iso image into a USB stick, then boot PC with it to get into a live Ubuntu system, and finally start the wizard to install the system to hard disk.

Firstly, a USB stick with 4 GB+ memory is required, download ISO image from releases.ubuntu.com, and follow this guide to burn it:

Step 2: Boot your PC with the USB

Next, plug the USB stick into the target PC, start or restart and press F2/F10 (or other keys depends on your machine) to get into BIOS/UEFI. Select boot the USB, and you should see the following screen:

live-USB boot menu

Finally, select boot the first menu entry, or the second “safe graphics” if the first entry does not work for your machine.

Step 3: Start install wizard, choose language & keyboard layout

It will automatically launch the install wizard after successfully boot into the live system.

In the first page, choose the language for this wizard and live system. Then:

  • click “Try Ubuntu” to try the live system. There’s a shortcut icon to launch installer again if you decide to install the system on your disk.
  • or click “Install Ubuntu” to get to next page.

In the next keyboard layout page, it should automatically select the correct keyboard layout. You may press any key on keyboard and see the screen output to verify. Use “Detect Keyboard Layout” or select layout manually if the default is not correct.

Next, it will prompt to choose between “Normal Installation” and “Minimal Installation”. We usually choose the former one, unless you just need a web browser along with core system libraries.

For updates and third-party software under “Other options”, check the boxes as you prefer if you has internet connection. They are also available to install after system installation.

Step 4: Choose disk or assign partition manually

In the next page, it will ask where to install the Ubuntu system. There are usually following options:

  • Erase disk and install Ubuntu – use the whole hard disk for Ubuntu. You’ll lost all the data in your disk. There’s also “Advanced features” allows to encrypt the system.
  • Install Ubuntu beside Windows – If you’ve a Windows system in the disk, there’ll be the option to use all the left space for Ubuntu installation. So you’ll have Ubuntu and Windows dual-boot.
  • Install/Reinstall Ubuntu on top of … – Clear the old Ubuntu system and use the disk partition for new Ubuntu system.
  • Something else – edit disk partition manually.

Step 5: Manually create system partition

If you choose “Something else” in the previous screen. It will bring you into the partition table.

In this page, you need to create following partitions using the free disk spaces (or remove and re-use unused spaces):

  • EFI – 100 ~ 500 MB. (optional for old legacy BIOS without secure boot)
  • Swap area – as large as RAM (optional if you have large RAM. And, a swap-file can take the job after installation)
  • /boot Ext4 partition – 500 ~ 1000MB (optional, but required for LVM or disk encryption)
  • Ext4 mounted at “/” – 20GB + the bigger the better (required)

Here are some partition combinations for installing Ubuntu:

  • EFI + Ext4 mounted at “/”
  • EFI + Swap + Ext4 mounted at “/”
  • EFI + Ext4 mounted at “/” + separated “/boot” partition
  • EFI + Swap + Ext4 mounted at “/” + separated “/boot” partition
  • Ext4 mounted at “/” (for legacy boot only)
  • Ext4 mounted at “/” + separated “/boot” partition (for legacy boot only)
  • Swap + Ext4 mounted at “/” (for legacy boot only)
  • Swap + Ext4 mounted at “/” + separated “/boot” partition (for legacy boot only)
  • EFI + Ext4 mounted at “/” (Encrypted) + separated “/boot” partition (no swap and /boot is required)

Here are the screenshots of example partition table and partition create dialog (use ‘+’ to create yours).

For encrypted Ubuntu system, instead of directly creating “Ext4 file system” mount at ‘/’, create and select use as “physical volume for encryption”.

In this mode, you’ll need to type the secure key (password) every time you boot Ubuntu. And mount Ubuntu system volume from another machine/system need this key too.

Then right-click on it in partition table and select mount point “/”. NOTE: you have to remove Swap area if any and create separated ‘/boot’ partition first for encryption mode.

And under “Device for boot loader installation”, use the default “/dev/sdx” will install the Grub boot-loader for loading all systems in the disk. Though UEFI still allows to choose boot-loader at boot.

Step 6: Setup Account, Location and done

After click “Install Now” and confirm on pop-up dialog. The wizard will prompt to set up your account, computer name, and select location.

You may add more accounts after installation, and other information can be changed later. So just do the settings as you prefer.

Finally, wait the process done. If no error occur, it should prompt installation done with option to restart your computer.

It may sometimes refuse to restart after clicked the button. That’s not a big deal, just press and hold the power key to force shutdown and boot it again.

Ubuntu is always not ready for use out-of-the-box, because every user has his/her own preferences. And, here’s a list of things I did after installing Ubuntu 22.04 LTS.

1. Install Media Codec:

To speed up the installing process, I never enable the network connection in Ubuntu’s installer wizard. So, the media codecs is not installed and audio/video player does not work out-of-the-box.

Press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. And, refresh the package cache if you’ve not done that.

sudo apt update

Then, install the codecs for audio, video playback, Microsoft fonts, rar support, and so forth via this command:

sudo apt install ubuntu-restricted-extras

Thanks to @Stephen, the command will output a TTF EULA message asks you to click ‘OK’ to confirm. In case you don’t know how to continue, press Tab to highlight the button and hit Enter.

2. Remove Firefox and install the Deb version:

I use Firefox to install Gnome Extensions regularly. But the pre-installed Firefox is a Snap package that does not support the feature.

It’s easy to remove the Firefox Snap by running command (back your data first!) in terminal:

sudo snap remove --purge firefox

However, Firefox Deb package in 22.04 repository is just a wrapper that links to Snap. Except the official Linux Tarball, there are only third-party repositories (though really trustworthy): Ubuntuzilla and “Mozilla Team” team PPA.

I personally prefer the “Mozilla Team” team PPA. And, simply run the commands below one by one will install Firefox Deb package from that repository:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mozillateam/ppa
sudo apt install -t 'o=LP-PPA-mozillateam' firefox

After installation, you need to set higher PPA priority to prevent Ubuntu from installing the Snap back. See here for details.

3. Select your favorite accent color

Ubuntu 22.04 introduced 10 accent colors in “Appearance” settings page. It allows you change the color of slider bar, on/off switch, check-box, highlight text background, input box border, and even folder icon.

Choose favorite accent color

4. Tweak Ubuntu Dock (the left panel)

Click to minimize, minimize the app window when click on its icon on the dock by running command:

gsettings set org.gnome.shell.extensions.dash-to-dock click-action minimize

Shorten the left panel and move it to the bottom using system settings under “Appearance” page:

And, remove mounted and network volumes from the dock via “Configure dock behavior” setting options.

5. Setup Gnome Extensions support.

Most extensions are available to install from https://extensions.gnome.org/. Ubuntu however does not ready for it out-of-the-box.

After switching Firefox Snap to another package (or another browser), you need to press Ctrl+Alt+T to open terminal and run command to install required packages:

sudo apt install chrome-gnome-shell gnome-shell-extension-prefs

It installs the agent to be able to install Gnome Extensions from web browser, as well as the “Gnome Extensions” app to manage all available extensions on your system:

Manage Gnome Extensions

(Update) 6. Install Gnome Extension Manager:

Started in Ubuntu 22.04, there’s a cool new graphical tool made into official repositories. It’s “Extension Manager“, which allows to search, install, remove and manage Gnome Extensions.

With the tool, you do not have to remove the pre-installed Firefox or use another browser any more.

Search extensions

To install the Extension manager, open terminal by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard and run command:

sudo apt install gnome-shell-extension-manager

7. Install Gnome Tweaks / Dconf Editor.

For more configuration options about desktop appearance and behavior, Gnome Tweaks and Dconf Editor are highly recommended.

And, they are both available to install either from Ubuntu Software or by running the command below in terminal:

sudo apt install gnome-tweaks dconf-editor

8. Weather forecast in Clock menu

Gnome’s (the default desktop) core weather app will add weather condition about the next few hours in the clock menu.

Simply install the app by running the command below in terminal:

sudo apt install gnome-weather

Then launch it from the ‘Activities’ overview screen. Setup your location and see the daily or hourly weather forecast. The clock menu will display hourly forecast automatically after that.

9. Install some extensions

There are many great Gnome extensions. Here are few of them that are highly recommended:

10. Enable ability to apply another Gnome Shell themes.

There are tons of Gnome Shell themes available to change the look and feel of the top-bar, dock, and system menus.

To be able to apply one of these themes, you have to first install the ‘User Themes extension’:

Then, use “Gnome Tweaks -> Appearance” page to select an installed theme for Shell use.