Helix cant find themes

[Dorfeuheinz]

I installed helix editor the other day & I cant change my themes. When using the :theme command the only thing thats displayed is default & base16_default. I find no other themes in my editor. whats wrong?

[aromeronavia]

CAn you give more context on your setup?

• Operating System
• How did you install Helix (brew/apt-get/source-code)

[Dorfeuheinz]

OS- deepin linux
Installation- Downloaded from source & built it. apt-get doesnt work on debian apparently

[pascalkuthe]

Your runtime folder is missing, make sure you.followed the install instructions correctly

[the-mikedavis]

The themes aren't compiled in so rebuilding shouldn't have any effect. You should have a file ~/.config/helix/runtime/themes/onedark.toml or have a $HELIX_RUNTIME environment variable that points to the runtime directory in the source repository.

[Dorfeuheinz]

Nope this doesnt work too, tried both of those methods. Somethings still missing. The .config/helix option doesnt exist, I created those dirs, & then a symlink to the runtime but nope, didnt work

[Dorfeuheinz]

I actually fixed that by changing base16 theme to the 1 I needed & recompiling but the autocomplete still doesnt work. My lan servers work well but the auto suggestions arent working, idk things r broken rn

[CptPotato]

Nope this doesnt work too, tried both of those methods. Somethings still missing. The .config/helix option doesnt exist, I created those dirs, & then a symlink to the runtime but nope, didnt work

You can try hx --health and check the paths at the start of the output to see where helix tries to look for the runtime files.

[Dorfeuheinz]

i found a workaround. changed the default theme to the one I needed, so the name is the same but file contents r different. Lang servers r running fine ig

[rochacbruno]

I just fixed by doing the steps:

git clone https://github.com/helix-editor/helix
cd helix
cargo install --path helix-term --locked

THEN THE IMPORTANT PART that is missing from the docs page

cp -R runtime ~/.config/helix/
hx -g fetch
hx -g build

[the-mikedavis]

Runtime directory setup is documented right here: https://docs.helix-editor.com/master/install.html#configuring-helixs-runtime-files

[rochacbruno]

Sorry, I overlooked that section, it was confusing to me, I tried to set HELIX_RUNTIME to ~/.config/helix/runtime as it was not clear to me that I needed to point it to the repo src folder.

Then I solved by copying from repo to my home config foder, which is equivalente to the symlink option mentioned there.

That was my bad, but anyway this comment here can help someone else that ends up in the same situation.

Thanks

[MichaelLan]

I have the same problem, I tried to install directly using apt install in wsl2 (ubuntu), but the themes are not displayed, after I removed it and tried to use the source code and I had the same problem.

I set $HELIX_RUNTIME /home/michaellan/.config/helix/runtime in my zsh config file

I copy the runtime folder inside /home/michaellan/.config/helix/runtime, and the themes folder is there.

With the hx --health command I get

Config file: /home/michaellan/.config/helix/config.toml
Language file: default
Log file: /home/michaellan/.cache/helix/helix.log
Runtime directories: /home/michaellan/.config/helix/runtime;/home/michaellan/.config/helix/runtime;/home/michaellan/.config/helix/runtime;/home/michaellan/.cargo/bin/runtime
Clipboard provider: termcode
System clipboard provider: termcode

I have no other idea how to solve it.

[webdev23]

The env variable HELIX_RUNTIME= is not propagated on some machines, not sure why.
The ln command given in the docs doesn't either on those machines.
What worked for me in this situation was:

rm -rf ~/.config/helix && ln -sf ~/helix/runtime ~/.config/helix

[JayeshUkey]

This is the only solution which worked. TYhanks a Ton.

[OscarRaizer]

do not forget to push space after :theme to see another themes