Skin files, paths and loading order

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Files you will encounter

Path or file	What it contains
/usr/share/enigma2/MySkin/skin.xml	Main skin XML: output resolution, resources and named screens
Other XML inside the skin	Included screens, palettes, styles or generated skin parts; filenames are skin-specific
PNG/SVG artwork	Icons, backgrounds, buttons and other pixmaps; support goes through the receiver’s image loader
TTF/OTF font files	Font resources registered with a skin name before widgets use them; package the required fonts with appropriate licences
/etc/enigma2/skin_user.xml	Optional generic user screen overrides
/etc/enigma2/skin_user_MySkin.xml	Optional skin-specific override for a primary skin named MySkin/skin.xml
/etc/enigma2/settings	Contains config.skin.primary_skin=MySkin/skin.xml; it is not a screen-layout file
/usr/lib/enigma2/python/skin.py or skin.pyc	Skin engine; images may ship compiled Python only
.../Screens/ and plugin folders	Python screen logic and embedded fallback layouts
.../Components/Sources/, Converter/, Renderer/	Source classes, data transformations and display bridges
/usr/share/enigma2/display/	Front-display skins; separate from the TV OSD

MySkin is a placeholder. Use the actual primary-skin directory. Do not edit generated skin XML without understanding its generator: the next settings save or package update may replace it.

Loading order and overrides

In the documented InitSkins() implementation, later named screens replace earlier definitions of the same name:

1. Emergency/fallback skin and subtitle skin.
2. The configured primary GUI skin, with a default-skin fallback on failure.
3. The display skin on its own screen/display ID.
4. Eligible optional mySkin/skin_*.xml parts, sorted by filename. This particular core path excludes the configured default skin; a skin’s own plugin can use a different mechanism.
5. A readable skin-specific user override, otherwise the generic skin_user.xml.

This is replacement of a whole named screen, not a CSS-style merge of every matching widget. A partial override must still satisfy the screen’s expected components. Optional includes are loaded at the point the loader processes them.

Inside readSkin(), the names in screen.skinName are tried in order. A valid registered layout takes priority; otherwise Enigma2 can use the Python screen’s embedded skin string. Required widgets can cause an incompatible named layout to be rejected.

A minimal resource file

<skin>
  <colors>
    <color name="LabBackground" value="#00101928" />
    <color name="LabAccent" value="#005BD4EC" />
  </colors>
  <fonts>
    <font filename="DejaVuSans.ttf" name="LabRegular" scale="100" />
  </fonts>
  <include filename="MySkin/screens.xml" />
</skin>

This fragment assumes the font and included file resolve on that receiver. It does not create an installable complete skin by itself. The included XML also uses a <skin> root.

Resolve paths deliberately

Tools.Directories.resolveFilename() understands scopes. SCOPE_GUISKIN searches skin-specific configuration overrides, common overrides, the active skin and fallback locations. For XML it also considers the legacy /etc/enigma2/ override location. SCOPE_FONTS has its own search order, including skin fonts and /usr/share/fonts/.

For an isolated plugin screen, set self.skin_path to the plugin directory and use ~/assets/pattern.png. Here ~/ is a skin-engine path prefix relative to that explicit skin path; it does not mean the Linux home directory. The pixmap examples use this convention.

Prefer a unique prefix for new resource and screen names. Generic names such as Background or TestScreen can collide with another skin or plugin.

Source links

The loading functions document InitSkins, loadSkin, loadSingleSkinData and readSkin. Path lookup is implemented in Tools/Directories.py.