HOWTO: Create a smooth transition from KDM log in screen to Ksplash screen

[Snowhog]

This is a continuing observation/complaint. When one is using a KDM Theme and a user logon, and the theme has an image as the background (as opposed to a color/color gradient), there isn't a smooth transition of the background image from KDM to the Ksplash background. This is because of the way KDM manages the background image versus the way Ksplash handles it.

In KDM, the background image is cropped. In Ksplash it is scaled. There isn't an easy way (that I have been able to locate) to modify the behavior of Ksplash. But there is a very easy way to modify the behavior of KDM!

KDM themes are located at:

/usr/share/kde4/apps/kdm/themes

I'm using the default Horos theme, so I need to modify the horos.xml file. The following uses kate, launched as root, to do the editing:

Press Alt+F2 and type:

kdesudo kate /usr/share/kde4/apps/kdm/themes/horos/horos.xml

Locate the following line:

<normal wallpaper="Horos" scalemode="crop"/>

and change it to this:

<normal wallpaper="Horos" scalemode="scale"/>

Save and close the file. Log out and log back in. Viola! The transition from KDM to Ksplash screens is as smooth as silk! It's a beautiful thing. 8)

[oshunluvr]

Re: HOWTO: Create a smooth transition from KDM log in screen to Ksplash screen

Hey, great tip!

[dibl]

Re: HOWTO: Create a smooth transition from KDM log in screen to Ksplash screen

Very nice, Snowhog -- thank you!

[doctordruidphd]

Re: HOWTO: Create a smooth transition from KDM log in screen to Ksplash screen

Just fyi, I roll my own splash screen with ksplasherx, and set up my own greeter background in systemsettings > login , so all I have to do is use the same image properly sized for the desktop, choose the scaled option for kdm (which you can do if you are not using a pre-packaged theme), and I have a smooth transition from greeter-splashscreen-desktop. Now, if making plymouth themes wasn't so painful, I could add grub and plymouth, and that WOULD be cool.

[valoriez]

Re: HOWTO: Create a smooth transition from KDM log in screen to Ksplash screen

I tried it, and it looks great!

Thanks for the tip.