For several versions in recent past, the color of the omnibox in Google Chrome (and Chromium) was determined by the user's gtk3 theme (if the user opted for using a gtk theme instead of classic mode in chrome://settings.
This held true until the release of version 69 in which the omnibox now looks like this:
How can I restore the omnibox to its previous appearance in Google Chrome 68 that looks like this?
Best Answer
See update at the bottom of this answer
Edit: the workaround described below was limited to version 69 and 70. It is not possible to circumvent the white background of the address bar in version 71.
Further edit: the relevant bug has now been taken up by a Googler who worked extensively on the transition of Chrome to gtk3 and so I'm hopeful of a solution soon.Enter
chrome://flags/#top-chrome-mdin the omnibox and press Enter.Click on the dropdown in the first entry, choose "Normal" and restart the browser.
It will change appearance from default
to normal
Note that
flagsmay disappear at any time in the future. However, a bug, GTK+ theme ignored in omnibar in the new interface has been filed and, if addressed, may provide a solution without resorting tochrome://flags.Update: This bug has not attracted sufficient interest and currently, 20181205, nobody is assigned to it. And the workaround fails in Chrome 71.Update 20190315:
With Chrome 73, one can use
--enable-features=WebUIDarkMode --force-dark-modeafter making sure that the Classic theme option is chosen in Settings > Appearance instead of GTK+. Launched in this way, Google Chrome uses a built-in dark mode that doesn't rely on or use your GTK theme colors. As of now, dropdowns such as that of bookmark folders or the ☰ icon also reflect the dark mode.