it would probably be easier to do this on the device itself go to here: http://maemo.org/downloads/product/Maemo5/leafpad/ in the phone browser (or google for leafpad) and instlal leafpad open up xterminal on the n900 from the menu type cd /usr/share/themes and press return type ls and press return you can now see a list of folders whose names relate to the themes on your device. suppose you are using the "alpha" theme (the water splash background) type cd alpha/gtk-2.0 type leafpad gtkrc edit the file as per instruction here NOTE: when youre in xterminal, pressing TAB (on the screen bottom) will perform name completion for you so you dont have to type full names when CDing.. if there is more than one match for what you typed, TAB will fill in as much as it can. if you press TAB again, it will show you the choices so you know there is ambiguity. type more characters before pressing TAB again