How do I change the login and splash screens in Kubuntu 16.10?

[Shabakthanai]

I am not much for the artwork of the wallpaper in Kubuntu 16.10. I would really like to install the wallpaper from K16.04 but have found suitable alternatives in the library of wallpapers.

Thanks! Shab

[gtrip]

I suppose you have the option to use any image file that you may wish. Find on your computer, phone or other media an image file and use that.

Does this help to solve your issue or do you have other questions?

[Shabakthanai]

I prefer the K16.04 login screen and opening wallpaper, if possible. I prefer the intense color and action.

I am familiar with alternate choices, but still prefer K16.04 artwork. Thanks if you can help me obtain. 😀Shab😀

[timt]

I have just done exactly this - I completely agree that the 16.04 artwork was very nice, but the 16.10 artwork is an acquired taste (to put it kindly).

First I'll cover how to change the image, then how to obtain the 16.04 image.

My first attempt to do this was via System Settings -> Startup and Shutdown -> Login Screen (SDDM): from there, you can select a different image to customise the login screen. This half worked - if I set a new image here, it gets used on the login screen, but only AFTER I have logged in, during the transition from login to the new session. The initial login screen still had the original image.

To change the image for the whole login screen (including before login details have been entered), I did the following hack: the image used can be found in /usr/share/sddm/themes/breeze/components/artwork - the file is called background.png, so I backed this up (e.g. mv background.png background-16p10.png), and swapped in my preferred image which I renamed background.png and placed in this directory.

So the next question is how to get hold of the background image from 16.04? Well, luckily I still had 16.04 installed on my laptop while I am currently getting 16.10 set up on my desktop. I was able to find it on my laptop in the same /usr/share/sddm/themes/breeze/components/artwork directory. It can also be found under /usr/share/plasma/look-and-feel/org.kde.breeze.desktop/contents/components/artwork. NB - these images are the blurred images suitable for the login and lock screen. For the sharp image suitable for the normal desktop wallpaper, you'll find that (in lots of different screen sizes) in /usr/share/wallpapers/Next/contents/images

I imagine these images should be available online somewhere. If anyone else knows where to find them, it would be good to know.

One more thing I would like to sort out but have not yet figured out how to. On the 16.04 login screen there was a very nice vertical transition of elements when you logged in. On 16.10 this has been replaced with a very jerky (on my installation at least) right-to-left transition, which looks horrible. I would like to switch back to the (smooth) vertical transition. That's next on my to-do list...

[Shabakthanai]

Thank you for your kind reply. Unfortunately, I would prefer the K16.04 wallpaper and login screen. I noticed that the next reply on my post has much of the instruction for obtaining what I would like. It appears to be missing the attractive motion that takes place in the K16.04 edition. 'timt'seems to have a better handle on the problem, in case his information is of help to you. He identifies the location of the correct packages and how to get them to their proper location, minus the motion artwork of the K16.04 OS. You have been most helpful. Shab

I suppose you have the option to use any image file that you may wish. Find on your computer, phone or other media an image file and use that.

Does this help to solve your issue or do you have other questions?

[Shabakthanai]

My friend, I am old and this will take some effort on my part. I and my memory are at war. I am confident your solution will work for me, so I will take my time to get it right. I still would like to have the attractive transition motion. If you succeed in finding a solution, please post a reply including the result. If I find same before you, I will post a private message to you including the hack. Thanks for such a thorough instruction. It is exactly what I need to complete such a task. Shab

[2muchcoffeeman]

Using the info in this post and elsewhere, I made step-by-step notes for myself before making any changes. The steps worked for me, so I've posted them here.

NOTE: I have the breeze theme installed, so you will see breeze referenced in the various pathnames and directories. If you have a different theme installed, you should swap in its name in the directions below.

If you need them, my system details can be found in my profile.

Change login and splash screens

Login screen image is stored here:
/usr/share/sddm/themes/breeze/components/artwork/background.png

Splash screen image is stored here:
/usr/share/plasma/look-and-feel/org.kde.breeze.desktop/contents/components/artwork/background.png

Select your new image & convert to .png
Find a new image -- from the web, from your own photo collection, etc.
Download to desktop
If the file is not .png format, then open the image in GIMP or an equivalent image-editing program
Export to desktop as a .png file. IMPORTANT: Name the file background.png

Open konsole

Change login screen image

Navigate to login screen directory where current image is stored

cd /usr/share/sddm/themes/breeze/components/artwork

If you were to do an ls command, you would see that inside this directory is a file named background.png. This is the current login-screen image, and you must now change its name. This is akin to doing a “save as” maneuver; it keeps the image in the same directory, with a new name. In this way, it is preserved as a backup.

mv background.png backgroundbackup.png

Navigate to desktop

cd /home/<your_user_name>/Desktop

Move the new .png image into the login screen directory

mv background.png usr/share/sddm/themes/breeze/components/artwork

Change splash screen image

Go back to GIMP
Open the new image and once again export it to desktop as .png (the previous copy of the .png file was moved to the login screen directory)
(perhaps there is a way -- the cp command instead of the mv command specified above? -- to avoid this visit to GIMP again, but it's a quick step, so . . . not a big deal)

Navigate to splash screen directory where current image is stored

cd /usr/share/plasma/look-and-feel/org.kde.breeze.desktop/contents/components/artwork

If you were to do an ls command, you would see that inside this directory is a file named background.png. This is the current splash-screen image, and you must now change its name. This is akin to doing a “save as” maneuver; it keeps the image in the same directory, with a new name. In this way, it is preserved as a backup.

mv background.png backgroundbackup.png

Navigate to desktop

cd /home/<your_user_name>/Desktop

Move the new .png image into the splash screen directory

mv background.png /usr/share/plasma/look-and-feel/org.kde.breeze.desktop/contents/components/artwork

That’s it.

[woodsmoke]

Well ...

I’m just an old hardware kinda guy so I gotta do things kinda simplefied as befitin' a Mountain William.

To change the "splash screen" for when one first boots into the O.S.

Obtain an image which is “generally “wider than taller” and is of “wallpaper resolution”.

I obtained this image.

http://wallpaperswide.com/anime_girl...allpapers.html

The particular image for the stock splash screen has the following dimensions.

2560 x 1600 pixels. It is a .png.

Resize the image to those dimensions. Apply any name to the image EXCEPT “background”. Save/export as a .png.

In terminal open Dolphin or Konqueror using sudo - sudo Dolphin or sudo Konqueror.

Navigate to:

root/usr/share/plasma/look-and-feel/org.kde.breeze.desktop/contents/components/artwork

One will observe therein a .png image that in “preview” one will see is the weird purply/blue/diagonaly thing that is named: background.png.

Split the screen and change one of the sides to where one has placed the altered image of above and, since one is in root, copy the image into the folder. (one can just drag it).

FIRST - Rename the original background image to a convenient name such as: background 01.png .

SECOND - Rename the desired image to “background.png”.

Close Dolphin or Konqueror.

Restart.

One will observe the new image for the background. The clock, your image, whatever, may or may not be there depending on your settings.

To change the login screen:

Settings/workspace/startup and shutdown/login screen SSDM/

In the "left panel" to the top left one will see the screen that is the default, it will look like the purply/blue/diagonaly thingy with the black bar and the clock and image icons and for this user "breeze theme".

ON HAS TO CLICK ON THAT IMAGE and it will appear in the right panel where it says "customize theme".

The default image MUST appear in the panel to the right.

Below that there will be the word "Background" and to the right a little box and an option to navigate to a new image.

Click the option and navigate to the desired image, One does not "necessarily" need to "resize" it but the one I used was one that is of a relevant size and shape.

I used this:

https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploa...allpaper_8.jpg

Please note that it is in .jpg format, one can use .png also.

Click it and it will appear ONLY IN THE LITTLE BOX AT THE BOTTOM IN THE RIGHT PANEL.

It will be very small, about two cm by two cm, or 3/4 inch by 3/4 inch.

THE ORIGINAL DEFAULT IMAGE WILL REMAIN ABOVE IT.

AND THE ORIGINAL BREEZE THEME WILL STAY IN THE LEFT ORIGINAL PANEL.

if one sees the new image in the little box then things are ready, so click apply.

One can then "log out" and then "log in" and the login screen with the horizontal bar, clock, etc. AND with the new image will appear and it will be properly formatted.

The clock, your image, whatever, may or may not be there depending on your settings.

Of course, depending on one's theme one should change the above paths to "dark breeze" or whatever for the theme that one is using.

if there are any questions, just ask.

woodjustahardwarekindaguy

[timt]

Just an update on my previous post: I have now managed to get the 16.04-style "vertical transition" effect working on 16.10, in place of the default right-to-left transition. This is the animation effect you see on the login screen just after logging in.

However, the animation is still jerky on my machine (which is a fairly high-spec desktop), whereas it was completely smooth in 16.04. Unfortunately it seems that the latest versions of Plasma and SDDM still have some wrinkles to be ironed out.

Anyhow, the animation is defined in the file /usr/share/plasma/look-and-feel/org.kde.breeze.desktop/contents/splash/Splash.qml

I simply copied the 16.04 version of this file from my laptop to the same place on my desktop, and just edited the first non-comment line to read

 import QtQuick 2.5

(because the default 16.10 Splash.qml file specified this version, rather than QtQuick 2.2 as used in the 16.04 version of the file).

So my new Splash.qml file looks like this:

/*
 *   Copyright 2014 Marco Martin <mart@kde.org>
 *
 *   This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
 *   it under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2,
 *   or (at your option) any later version, as published by the Free
 *   Software Foundation
 *
 *   This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
 *   but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
 *   MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
 *   GNU General Public License for more details
 *
 *   You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public
 *   License along with this program; if not, write to the
 *   Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
 *   51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA  02110-1301, USA.
 */

import QtQuick 2.5

Image {
    id: root
    source: "../components/artwork/background.png"
    fillMode: Image.PreserveAspectCrop

    property int stage

    onStageChanged: {
        if (stage == 1) {
            introAnimation.running = true
        }
    }
    Rectangle {
        id: topRect
        width: parent.width
        height: (root.height / 3) - bottomRect.height - 1
        y: root.height
        color: "#4C000000"
        Image {
            source: "images/kde.svgz"
            anchors.centerIn: parent
            sourceSize.height: 128
            sourceSize.width: 128
        }
    }

    Rectangle {
        id: bottomRect
        width: parent.width
        y: -height
        height: 50
        color: "#4C000000"

        Rectangle {
            radius: 3
            color: "#31363b"
            anchors.centerIn: parent
            height: 8
            width: height*32
            Rectangle {
                radius: 3
                anchors {
                    left: parent.left
                    top: parent.top
                    bottom: parent.bottom
                }
                width: (parent.width / 6) * (stage - 1)
                color: "#3daee9"
                Behavior on width { 
                    PropertyAnimation {
                        duration: 250
                        easing.type: Easing.InOutQuad
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }

    ParallelAnimation {
        id: introAnimation
        running: false

        YAnimator {
            target: topRect
            from: root.height
            to: root.height / 3
            duration: 1000
            easing.type: Easing.InOutBack
            easing.overshoot: 1.0
        }
        YAnimator {
            target: bottomRect
            from: -bottomRect.height
            to: 2 * (root.height / 3) - bottomRect.height
            duration: 1000
            easing.type: Easing.InOutBack
            easing.overshoot: 1.0
        }
    }
}

Also, finally, in case it's of use to others, here are a few useful links I came across in the course of figuring all of this out:

https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showth...r-login-themes
https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showth...kground-images
https://forum.kde.org/viewtopic.php?f=289&t=125293