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

[James Tyrer]

On 11/03/2011 04:48 PM, Duncan wrote:
> 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.
>
This is a single image.  Probably a jpeg file.  It looks like some of 
the stuff that the Plasma "artists" have the hubris to call art.  There 
are a bunch of diagonal green lines that are bent in the lower right (my 
right) quadrant of the screen.

Since my "startkde" script has the same: "xsetroot" to black 
instruction, I presume that this is part of Plasma.  I wish that I had 
never heard of Plasma.  But it appears to be the root image because I 
only see it when composting is slow.  However, it is not the root 
image.  Further research and I find that if I kill Plasma-Desktop that I 
get a black screen -- which is what startkde set.

It isn't the background for the splash screen.  That was where one would 
expect to find it:

$KDEDIR/share/apps/ksplash/Themes

I had to make another theme because: KSplash only does images -- wasn't 
possible to configure a gradient like I have on the desktop.  But, it 
was simple -- how nice it is when things are logically arranged (The 
Plasma Project doesn't seem to get that).

So, if I only knew where this image is stored and what it's name is, I 
could simply replace it.  My guess is that is part  of Plasma.  I found 
that if I kill the Plasma-Desktop from a Konsole and then restart it 
that the ugly image is gone and only the #000000 Black root window 
appears when composting is slow or sticks.

-- 
James Tyrer

Linux (mostly) From Scratch


-- 
James Tyrer

Linux (mostly) From Scratch