Many of the themes available for download in Linux Mint no longer work with the cinnamon.css configuration—the start menu is unreadable...

[Li-Gnux]

In the new Linux Mint 22.3, many of the themes (especially the color schemes) are no longer suitable. I’m not concerned with “aesthetics” here, but rather with functionality that’s no longer available. Because they’re just hard to make out...
Here’s an example: If I use a desktop theme like Waterbody, for instance, I can no longer make out ANYTHING in the sidebar of the Start menu or in the highlighted menus there, because the Cinnamon.css files or other related elements no longer work properly. Unfortunately, this is the case for a great many themes, so the variety of themes offered in Mint 22.3 is effectively no longer (fully) usable.
Who can fix this..??

[Jopp-gh]

If theme authors don't fix it, then we ourselves.

However fixing themes isn't trivial and needs dedicated tools: I would love to make my own theme as css is a convenient and nice coding language.
Unfortunately, I have zero idea what tools to use.

[Jopp-gh]

Sure, for insignificant and simple code, you can use text editors.
I bet with you, Vscode or Geany are more convenient to write everyday code longer than a few lines.

To create themes, one needs to see css changes in real time. Also, I tried to look into Mint-Y and found it quite convoluted. If you know of a good tutorial how to create themes for Mint, then welcome.

[JosephMcc]

Sure a text editor with a few more features like Geany or Sublime text might make it a bit easier. Most people worry more about that then learning how to do anything. I managed to maintain most all of Mint's themes for years simply using Sublime text and a terminal. That includes Gtk4 ports, complete rewrites of Mint-X and the default Cinnamon theme.

To create themes, one needs to see css changes in real time. Also, I tried to look into Mint-Y and found it quite convoluted. If you know of a good tutorial how to create themes for Mint, then welcome.

CSS is just CSS, you don't need any special tutorials. I don't want to sound rude but this is mostly just excuses. It sounds like you just want it to be easy or someone to give you step by step for whatever you want to do. Learning things requires a bit of effort.

[Li-Gnux]

Hello Joseph
I’ve been volunteering myself for decades, and I switched to Linux in 2018—I’m very happy with my decision. However, I find it very unproductive that, as a Linux Mint user, I can “officially” download and install a theme via “System Settings” → Download and Install, only to discover that, starting with version 22.3, the cinnamon.css file has become unreadable for my favorite theme and x other themes as well—and now you’re recommending that users fix this themselves. That means thousands of users are doing the same (manual tweaking) on the cinnamon.css stylesheet
. That’s precisely why I brought this issue to this forum—in the hope that those who maintain the package repositories for downloading these themes will address the root cause of the problem. So it’s not about someone taking me by the hand and sparing me the effort of learning something on my own—it’s about effectively fixing a bug for a large number of users right at the source of the problem.
I hope I’ve made my point clear.
Best regards, Lignux

[Jopp-gh]

Many become volunteers, because of need and the tools Linux offers, including Mint. Not everyone's developer, however.
Mint-Y css is quite a lot of code: easy to change for those who wrote it from ground up!
Looking at other peoples code isn't obvious.

Vscode has terminals included. But to see css changes in real time isn't a big request in 2026, don't you think the same?
..otherwise we have to brute force / quit Mint / Cinnamon everytime to see our theme edits? Sounds like bad practices to me.

It's not about excuses, but about good practices to save time from the get go, especially if we don't code for a living.

[JosephMcc]

That’s precisely why I brought this issue to this forum—in the hope that those who maintain the package repositories for downloading these themes will address the root cause of the problem.

Unfortunately this is the case with anything created by the community, which all spices are. People put them up but never maintain them. Honestly, the not working ones should probably just be removed. The Mint devs aren't going to maintain them all. I've noticed in the past that some of them are simply copied from somewhere else so the person who put it on the spices site might not even know how to maintain it.

Sounds like bad practices to me.

Sounds like the reality of development to me. Most things aren't super easy. If it was there would be a lot more people doing it. You can either be someone who complains and wants things done for them or you could put some effort into learning how to do it yourself. Either way is fine.

[billyswong]

Obviously everyone like everything be up to date. But we are facing the sad fact that people who are capable don't have time for that or don't want to spend time on that. Meanwhile people who get strong enough motive to keep things up to date are not capable to do so.

I think a faster quick fix will be to let the theme download UI indicate the version compatibility of each theme, and auto-filter away those that aren't ready for the current Cinnamon version. Such fix is going to remain useful no matter what further changes are added to Cinnamon UI design in the future.