How can I enable dark mode in Chrome?

Question

I'm running ubuntu 19.10 and I tried to enable dark mode by running google-chrome-stable --enable-features=WebUIDarkMode --force-dark-mode in terminal then it works but gives me this and chrome would close then return to light mode when i relaunch

ERROR:child_process_sandbox_support_impl_linux.cc(79)] FontService unique font name matching request did not receive a response.

what can i do to keep chrome in dark mode and close the terminal without closing chrome

Solution

Short answer

cp /usr/share/applications/google-chrome.desktop ~/.local/share/applications/google-chrome.desktop

sed -i 's;/usr/bin/google-chrome-stable;/usr/bin/google-chrome-stable --enable-features=WebUIDarkMode --force-dark-mode;g' ~/.local/share/applications/google-chrome.desktop

Please close all Google Chrome windows to apply changes.

Explained answer

A definitive solution would be to edit Chrome's desktop entry file so that every time you launch Chrome using the applications menu, it will run in dark mode.

A desktop entry file describes how a particular program is to be launched, and they have the .desktop extension.

Desktop files managed by your package manager are located in /usr/share/applications (they will be recreated every time the corresponding package updates) and desktop files managed by your user are located in ~/.local/share/applications — this is where you should create personal desktop entries, and desktop files here override the package manager ones.

You need to create a personal desktop entry for Chrome, so you can edit it and make changes permanent for your user. That means you have to copy the original file to your desktop entries directory.

cp /usr/share/applications/google-chrome.desktop ~/.local/share/applications/google-chrome.desktop

Now you need to modify the Exec key inside Chrome's desktop entry file to change the command that runs this program. The new command will start Chrome on dark mode.

You need to open ~/.local/share/applications/google-chrome.desktop on a text editor and where you find something like Exec=/usr/bin/google-chrome-stable %U change it to Exec=/usr/bin/google-chrome-stable --enable-features=WebUIDarkMode --force-dark-mode %U.

You can use sed to do this automatically:

sed -i 's;/usr/bin/google-chrome-stable;/usr/bin/google-chrome-stable --enable-features=WebUIDarkMode --force-dark-mode;g' /usr/share/applications/google-chrome.desktop

Done. Please close all Google Chrome windows to apply changes.

See the Desktop Entry Specification for more details.

Comments

[dsSTORM]

try google-chrome-stable --enable-features=WebUIDarkMode --force-dark-mode &

[Terrance]

I am experiencing the same thing when I run Chrome from a terminal window. It is not affecting the way that Chrome is working and this appears to be generated by the Allow Google to run in the Background icon you see on the taskbar.

[DODE]

@dsSTORM chrome still closes when i close the terminal and changes to light again

[DODE]

@Terrance i tried disabling it from the settings but nothing changes

[DK Bose]

@Terrance, I pasted OP's code into gnome-terminal in Ubuntu 19.10 and google-chrome opened in dark mode. Adding & exit to the code allows me to launch google-chrome from the terminal and to automatically exit the terminal. I can do this repeatedly and always have the browser open in dark mode. Of course, my preferred route is to bind google-chrome-stable --enable-features=WebUIDarkMode --force-dark-mode to a keyboard shortcut for convenience. So I don't understand OP's question. Could you please clarify your experience?

[Terrance]

@DKBose I am only seeing the error message while I keep the terminal open, but I am not getting kicked out of my Chrome and it reopens. This to me sounds like it needs to have a bug report opened on it.

[DK Bose]

@Terrance one bug related to FontService.

[Terrance]

@DODE The command that DKBose runs with the & exit at the end of it should work fine and keep google chrome open. As far as the error messages go DKBose also did link a bug to the error.

[DODE]

@DKBose the command works fine thank you

[DODE]

@Terrance okay i will check it out thank you

[Thomas Guyot-Sionnest]

The --enable-features=WebUIDarkMode is no longer required (at least when using the GTK+ theme) but there is still an open issue preventing Chrome from using the OS theme preferences for web pages: bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=998903

[hashlash]

I had to restart for this to work

[Thomas Guyot-Sionnest]

If you edit /usr/share/applications/google-chrome.desktop it will get reverted on the next chrome update. You should copy it to ~/.local/share/applications/google-chrome.desktop and override it locally. Also note the --enable-features=WebUIDarkMode is no longer required (at least when using the GTK+ theme) but there is still an open issue preventing Chrome from using the OS theme preferences for web pages: bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=998903