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

[Duncan]

James Tyrer posted on Fri, 04 Nov 2011 21:06:12 -0700 as excerpted:

> On 11/03/2011 04:48 PM, Duncan wrote:
>> James Tyrer posted on Thu, 03 Nov 2011 10:54:01 -0700 as excerpted:
>>
>>> 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 [...]

>> 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 [ksplash]
>>
> 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.

Hmm... I don't believe I've seen that one... unless it's either the 
"plasmalicious" or "green concentration" kde-wallpapers, part of the kde-
wallpapers package.

> 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.

FWIW, plasma is simply the desktop shell.  As you were able to kill it 
(as I used to do routinely, as I had an always-on-top panel that unlike 
kde3's kicker, couldn't simply be slid out of the way temporarily, and it 
was easier to kill plasma then to fiddle with the config, then fiddle it 
back when done... I have somewhat different setup now that doesn't 
require that so often any more) without terminating all of kde, it's 
obviously possible to run with a different shell, if desired.

Actually, back when I'd routinely kill plasma, I'd do just that, using 
konsole much as I used to set the shell= line to a DOS prompt back on 
MSWormOS when I used to run it.

Or simply use krunner (or a well configured khotkeys) as your shell, 
since they both continue to run without plasma-desktop. =:^)

FWIW, back when plasma was giving me problems, I used to wonder about 
replacing it with an independent shell, perhaps the xfce shell or 
whatever.  But I never did so, and plasma eventually grew enough features 
and stability for my usage that it has been reasonably fine for me since 
4.5 (with the exception of a bug triggered by top-docked panels that was 
introduced with 4.6.2, IIRC, and that still exists but someone commented 
on the related bugs offering a kwin window rules based workaround that's 
more than satisfactory, here), so I'm reasonably happy with plasma at 
present.

But I certainly can identify with the feeling, as I was right there with 
you for quite some time, and would still be, were it not for that 
workaround to that still existing bug.

> It isn't the background for the splash screen.  That was where one would
> expect to find it:
> 
> $KDEDIR/share/apps/ksplash/Themes

OK, cool! =:^)  I was under the impression that only the progress display 
part of it was part of the theme, that the background image was something 
else, that a few themes simply happened to override.  But you're correct, 
so now in trying to help you, you've helped me! =:^)

> 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).

Agreed with both bits of that (how nice it is when things are simply and 
logically arranged, and that plasma seems to unnecessarily complicate 
things).

> 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.

Hmmm...

Note that to better utilize shared memory, etc, and start faster, all the 
base kde apps (including plasma-desktop) are originally launched in a 
special way by kdeinit4.  Simply killing them and relaunching them 
normally doesn't start them in the same special shared environment, etc, 
so uses a bit more resources, tho on a reasonably modern system it's not 
generally so much you'd notice, at least for only one component such as 
plasma-desktop.

Based on that, try killing plasma and relaunching it using 
"kdeinit4_wrapper plasma-desktop".  I'm not absolutely sure, but I 
/think/ that's supposed to launch it in the special shared environment.  
See if that brings back the weird image that launching it separately does 
not.  If so, we've pretty much confirmed it as part of kde, tho if not, 
it doesn't necessarily mean it's not part of kde.

Plus, if that does bring it back, you can now use xtrace -feopen to log 
the file opens and see if you can find the file based on that access log.

Alternatively, if it holds the file open (it may not, but it's worth a 
try), you can try using lsof to trace it that way.  Tho simply lsof will 
return WAY too many files.  But something like this might work, tho it 
doesn't return anything interesting in this context for me (but that 
doesn't mean anything since I might not even have that component 
installed or build-time configure option enabled, here).

lsof -p $(pgrep plasma-desktop) | grep REG | grep -v 'lib\|font'

-- 
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