[kde-linux] Very ugly image in X root window.

[Duncan]

James Tyrer posted on Thu, 03 Nov 2011 10:54:01 -0700 as excerpted:

> Well, I have again wasted most of an hour trying to make a simple change
> to KDE and have not succeeded.  Did someone miss the point that hiding
> things does not make KDE easier to use?
> 
> 
> Does anyone know how to change the X root window image (it is behind the
> desktop but sometimes is viable) for KDE?  Or, if it is hard coded, what
> is its name and location?


It's quite possible you're seeing the default X root window image, 
nothing to do with KDE.

If it's a kind of hashed up multi-color possibly repeating-tile possibly 
random-color (I never looked closely enough or researched it to see) 
mess, that's the X default.  I remember seeing a comment about it in one 
of the X or kde init files here on Gentoo, where it was replaced with a 
solid black, with the comment to the effect that the X default "made 
users heads explode" or something similar. =:^)  Of course, upon reading 
that I just /had/ to comment out that line, to see what the default 
actually /did/ look like, and decided I actually preferred it that way, 
since it wasn't /that/ bad, and unlike the solid black it was being 
replaced with, the default was distinctive enough I'd be able to identify 
it immediately (tho description is something else entirely; I'm not sure 
I did it justice, above), for troubleshooting and the like.

But that was some time ago.  I expect I've long ago replaced/upgraded the 
script where I had made that change.  Let's see if I can find it...

... Found it!  The script here is /usr/bin/startkde , owned by the 
kdebase-startkde package, of which I have version 4.7.2 installed.  That 
file appears to be from kde-workspace-4.7.2.tar.bz2, where it appears as 
kdeworkspace/startkde.cmake .  (I believe the kde-workspace tarball was 
split from kdebase in either 4.6 or 4.7.  Before that, the file should 
therefore be in the kdebase tarball.)

The script contains the following as lines 28-34 (reformatted slightly 
here for posting, the if test line isn't continued in the original, and 
one of the comment lines wraps slightly differently):

# Set the background to plain grey.
# The standard X background is nasty, causing moire effects and exploding
# people's heads. We use colours from the standard KDE palette for those
# with palettised displays.
if test -z "$XDM_MANAGED" || \
	echo "$XDM_MANAGED" | grep ",auto" > /dev/null; then
		xsetroot -solid "#000000"
fi

It seems there's a conditional now that I don't recall.  Now it's only 
replaced for those running a DM (XDM only??), not for those like me who 
start kde from a shell login.

So if kde's doing anything, it would seem to be that it's replacing the 
default root window image with solid-black.

Otherwise, perhaps you're talking about the screen that appears (at least 
here, where I start kde from a text login) during kde initialization, 
before plasma-desktop, etc, start and upon which the startup splash 
screen appears.  If so, that's definitely kde as it's one of the kde 
wallpapers.  I don't know where the default is actually coded, but 
obviously, one very hacky way to change it would be to replace that 
wallpaper with a different one of the same name.  Alternatively, once you 
know the name of the wallpaper, it should be simple enough to grep 
sources and config files for it, and change it correctly.

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman