How to fix KDM background aspect ratio 4:3 -> 16:9

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How to fix KDM background aspect ratio 4:3 -> 16:9

Postby vecciora » Jun 11th, '13, 02:09

I am a Mageia fan even though it doesn't look as modern as Fedora. I like Mageia because it is balanced distro, not too bleeding edge nor too conservative.

Mageia doesn't look as modern because when I login, I will see KDM login screen again with white color fill some portion of the screen on the left and right side.

This is not cool and it is still like that on Mageia 3. I dont't know if it's only like that on my system (a netbook), but Fedora and OpenSUSE doesn't have that kind of annoyingness.

Mageia is the best-loking distro for me if it doesn't have that kind of problem.
Last edited by doktor5000 on Feb 28th, '14, 05:44, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: adjusted thread title
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Re: mageia best-loking distro for me if...

Postby oj » Jun 11th, '13, 06:27

You could try changing the resolution of the boot screen, it's in the configure boot system tool in mcc. You might also try non frame buffer mode. (nonfb)
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Re: mageia best-loking distro for me if...

Postby doktor5000 » Jun 11th, '13, 21:48

I'm not sure if that would be effective, as when display manager has started, X server is in control, not framebuffer/bootsplash.
Probably it's just a matter of changing the KDM background to be widescreen-compatible. I've also got that, the default background is
only made for 4:3 displays, and after displaying it, it is scaled to full screen.

You can easily fix that by changing the default wallpaper. I'll show you how to find out.

default KDM background
Code: Select all
[doktor5000@Mageia3 ~]$ grep background /var/lib/mageia/kde4-profiles/Default/share/config/kdm/backgroundrc
Wallpaper=/usr/share/mga/backgrounds/default.jpg


taken from above, the default is only a symlink, let's look what it points at:
Code: Select all
[doktor5000@Mageia3 ~]$ ls -al /usr/share/mga/backgrounds/default.jpg
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 28 Mai 19 13:36 /usr/share/mga/backgrounds/default.jpg -> Mageia-Default-1920x1440.jpg


1920 / 1440 = 1,33 which is a ratio of 4:3.
I'm running a display of 1366 x 768, which is a 16:9 ratio: 1366 / 768 = 1,77

So let's look which backgrounds are available with a 16:9 ratio:

Code: Select all
[doktor5000@Mageia3 ~]$ ls -al /usr/share/mga/backgrounds/
insgesamt 16820
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root    4096 Mai 19 13:36 ./
drwxr-xr-x 10 root root    4096 Mai 18 15:06 ../
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root      28 Mai 19 13:36 default.jpg -> Mageia-Default-1920x1440.jpg
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  255965 Apr 17 14:06 Mageia-Default-1024x600.jpg
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  838928 Apr 17 14:06 Mageia-Default-1024x600.png
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  570876 Apr 17 14:06 Mageia-Default-1280x1024.jpg
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 1875491 Apr 17 14:06 Mageia-Default-1280x1024.png
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  921242 Apr 17 14:06 Mageia-Default-1920x1080.jpg
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 2924820 Apr 17 14:06 Mageia-Default-1920x1080.png
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 1026231 Apr 17 14:06 Mageia-Default-1920x1200.jpg
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 3250724 Apr 17 14:06 Mageia-Default-1920x1200.png
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 1176204 Apr 17 14:06 Mageia-Default-1920x1440.jpg
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 3719668 Apr 17 14:06 Mageia-Default-1920x1440.png
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  139895 Apr 17 14:06 Mageia-Default-800x480.jpg
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  488336 Apr 17 14:06 Mageia-Default-800x480.png



As we don't want artifacts, choose one larger then your display resolution and change the symlink to it.
I've chose the 1920 x 1080 one, as that's also a 16:9 ratio: 1920 / 1080 = 1,77

Code: Select all
[doktor5000@Mageia3 ]$ cd /usr/share/mga/backgrounds
[doktor5000@Mageia3 backgrounds]$ sudo ln -sf Mageia-Default-1920x1080.jpg default.jpg



Logout, login and it should be normal.
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Re: mageia best-loking distro for me if...

Postby vecciora » Jun 12th, '13, 00:20

Thanks for the help everyone!

I think Mageia would look a lot more professional if it could solve this tiny bit problem. Could it be fixed soon?
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Re: mageia best-loking distro for me if...

Postby vecciora » Jun 12th, '13, 00:36

just informing.. my screen is 1366x768. there is white line if I use 1080p wallpaper on the border. it is all fine if I use a 1366x768 wallpaper (scaling 1080p wallpaper using gimp).
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Re: mageia best-loking distro for me if...

Postby mika » Feb 27th, '14, 17:09

Hello Mageia community!

I have a question close to this topic.
How can I remove the background image from KDM and replace it with a plain color?
It seems that the changes in /usr/share/config/kdm/backgroundrc are not affecting to the "mageia-kde4" theme.
And also, the corresponding mageia-kde4.xml file doesn't say anything about backgrounds/default.jpg.
So, where should I look for it?

regards, Mika
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Re: mageia best-looking distro for me if...

Postby isadora » Feb 27th, '14, 17:23

Very welcome to the Mageia forum and community mika!!!! :)

My first advise would be, to open up a seperate topic in our "Basic-support"-subforum.

Have enjoyable times around!!!
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Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
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Re: mageia best-looking distro for me if...

Postby benmc » Feb 28th, '14, 05:30

Hi Mika

I see that you haven' t opened a new topic yet.

Anyway. if you want just a plain background colour [ like the old Win95 default? ] you should just make one in Gimp, set page size to your monitor resolution, pick a colour [ as Mr Ford said " available in any colour so long as it is Black " ] and save as a Jpeg file somewhere you can find it, then right click on your desktop and browse for your image and apply.

good luck
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Re: How to fix KDM background aspect ratio 4:3 -> 16:9

Postby doktor5000 » Feb 28th, '14, 05:49

He wants to change the background image for KDM, not the desktop background.
For one, there are KDM themes that can be installed via systemsettings -> login screen -> theme -> get new themes.
Other choice would be to create an image as benmc pointed out and then symlink that as shown above instead of the default image.
One could also edit /var/lib/mageia/kde4-profiles/Default/share/config/kdm/kdmrc directly to point to an image of choice.
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Re: How to fix KDM background aspect ratio 4:3 -> 16:9

Postby mika » Mar 1st, '14, 11:53

Thank you for your quick reply.
I was hoping to find a config file that tells KDM to use /usr/share/mga/backgrounds/default.jpg as background image, so I could simply remove that line.
Unfortunately I didn't, so I end up to this dirty solution.
I installed another KDM theme which provides a background image file. I modified it to match the screen resolution. And then moved the (default.jpg) symlink to point at this file.
But I still don't get it. What is the meaning of /usr/share/config/kdm/backgroundrc then?

regards, Mika
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Re: How to fix KDM background aspect ratio 4:3 -> 16:9

Postby doktor5000 » Mar 1st, '14, 20:57

mika wrote:But I still don't get it. What is the meaning of /usr/share/config/kdm/backgroundrc then?


That's not a file, but a symlink, so that you could choose between the Mageia KDM themes:
Code: Select all
[doktor5000@Mageia4 ~]$ ll /usr/share/config/kdm/backgroundrc
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 40 Sep 28 20:19 /usr/share/config/kdm/backgroundrc -> /etc/alternatives/kdm4-background-config
[doktor5000@Mageia4 ~]$ ll /etc/alternatives/kdm4-background-config
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 67 Feb  3 00:51 /etc/alternatives/kdm4-background-config -> /var/lib/mageia/kde4-profiles/Default/share/config/kdm/backgroundrc

If you have multiple Mageia KDE themes installed, you can switch between them via alternatives:
Code: Select all
[doktor5000@Mageia4 ~]$ sudo alternatives --list kdm4-config
/var/lib/mageia/kde4-profiles/Default/share/config/kdm/kdmrc
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Re: How to fix KDM background aspect ratio 4:3 -> 16:9

Postby alf » Mar 1st, '14, 23:12

To change the background in KDM you have to disable the design mode in KDE-systemsettings login-screen module. All changes can be made there, no need to edit any config file ;)
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