Plasma login manager : can't change "waterfall" wall paper?

[oshunluvr]

Love the new plasma login manager. My dual monitors now have only a single login dialog and on the correct monitor.

However, IMO the default "waterfall" wallpaper is damn ugly. Looks like something a grade schooler would like. The configuration shows "breeze" but the selected wallpaper isn't displayed.

Has anyone figured out the trick to get a different wallpaper?

[claydoh]

After selecting a wallpaper and applying, try running systemctl daemon-reload. This solved it for me after confirming what you are seeing.
I tried manually restarting the service, and got the message about it there. So, I logged back in, tried a different wallpaper, ran daemon-reload, logged out to check, and the change worked.


It is probably unrelated, but there is a bug where PLM changes don't happen until reboot, but this seems like something else.

[claydoh]

I see your bug

https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=521008

I do have the plm directories in /var on neon, not sure if that was something fixed by me somehow.

No, it is created when selecting and applying a wallpaper, in my VM. Switching wallpapers works there, in Plasma 6.7.2.
Will update to 6.7.3 and see if it breaks there.

[claydoh]

No, it works in the VM as expected?

but not on bare metal without extra steps.

[oshunluvr]

OK, so I had a sec to try out what you suggested and no-go here.

In System Settings > Login Screen I selected "Change Background" in "Breeze." I clicked "Clear Image" then selected my desired wallpaper (again) and clicked "Apply". Then ran "sudo systemctl daemon-reload".

Logged out and back in - no change. Still the ugly default.

I even tried scanning my entire install to see if I could locate the offending image and replace it manually, but the image scan program keeps crashing. I fI had half a clue where to find this image, I would just replace it.

[oshunluvr]

From what I can see here, the wallpaper I selected is in the /usr/share/sddm/themes/breeze/ folder. But not being shown by plm

[oshunluvr]

Tried a KDEneon VM (latest ISO) and it does indeed work there.

[oshunluvr]

I have to say not very impressed by the latest KDEneon ISO. Just spent an hour trying to get off of "safe" graphics mode.

[oshunluvr]

OK, after 6 attempts I finally got a working VM. This time, it does NOT change the login wallpaper. Instead I get an error:

[claydoh]

Something must be missing, as you are using Plasmalogin, not SDDM - there is a separate config tool for each. The SDDM module is supposed to be hidden when a different logion manager is being used, same for Plasmalogin.

oops, I see now:
The error is because SDDM is not installed/enabled


I can only see the SDDM module if I search for it explicitly, or for “login”, or have toggled the “show inapplicable” option on.
So there is a bug of sorts in System Settings for this (and other hidden modules, I assume).
It does not appear when digging through the menus manually.




This may better show it:




But I still saw exactly what you did using the correct module, until I didn't.




As a side note, the existence of the directory /var/lib/plasmalogin/wallpapers/ is used when changing wallpapers for Plasmalogin. I assume it is to get around the need for images to be located outside any $HOME like SDDM requires, so it copies the selected image there.

[oshunluvr]

As a side note, the existence of the directory /var/lib/plasmalogin/wallpapers/ is used when changing wallpapers for Plasmalogin. I assume it is to get around the need for images to be located outside any $HOME like SDDM requires, so it copies the selected image there.

This doesn't exist here. Maybe manual creation will fix it?

[oshunluvr]

I tried creating the folder, giving it public rx permissions, copied the desired wallpaper into it, using system settings selected it from the wallpapers folder, saving and applying using both "Apply" buttons...

...nothing

[oshunluvr]

If I could find the location of the ugly wallpaper, I'd just manually replace it.

[claydoh]

This doesn't exist here. Maybe manual creation will fix it?

Just be make sure, you are trying to change the wallpaper from the “Configure appearance” area in the "login screen" config section, not the "SDDM" one, correct?

Is your image choice a stock image, or one of your own? My test was with a personal image. let me check.

I do know it is created on the fly for me, and /var/lib/plasmalogin and contents are owned by the user plasmalogin

[claydoh]

It should create the dirs when you select an image, which uses the exact same UI tool as the desktop wallpaper selector. I see no other reports on this happening so far.

If you want to try manually creating it, here is what the tree looks like with a built-in wallaper (Air):



The other dirs are from me using the "apply Plasma setttings" option, they are not needed.

You don't seem to need all these dirs and metadata files for just copying an image, this is my custom wallpaper:



But you would need to adjust /etc/plasmalogin.conf to the match actual path to the image.