Bug 325380 - KDE 4.11 doesn't reload wallpaper image when changed
Summary: KDE 4.11 doesn't reload wallpaper image when changed
Status: RESOLVED UNMAINTAINED
Alias: None
Product: plasma4
Classification: Unmaintained
Component: wallpaper-image (show other bugs)
Version: 4.11.6
Platform: unspecified Linux
: NOR normal
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Paolo Capriotti
URL: https://bugs.launchpad.net/variety/+b...
Keywords: regression
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2013-09-28 01:48 UTC by bob53181
Modified: 2018-06-08 18:57 UTC (History)
7 users (show)

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Description bob53181 2013-09-28 01:48:53 UTC
KDE 4.11 doesn't reload wallpaper image when changed, for an example when the wallpaper file is dynamically changed by the variety program. This is a regression from 4.10 where it was working fine. The provided link (https://bugs.launchpad.net/variety/+bug/1197075) shows that the bug affects other people as well.


Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Set the wallpaper location to ~/.config/variety/
2. Start variety
3. Set the change wallpaper interval and wait for it to change the wallpaper
4. Check to see that the image is changes.
Actual Results:  
The desktop hasn't reloaded the image and the wallpaper stays the same.

Expected Results:  
The desktop should reload the wallpaper image.

If you go to desktop settings and click OK/Apply, the wallpaper reloads.
Comment 1 arthur 2013-10-01 15:58:59 UTC
Having the same problem on the main account.
For Accounts added after installation, the new wallpaper sticks...

AW
Comment 2 miklos 2013-12-25 14:31:27 UTC
Up until 4.10 I could change the wallpaper from a shell script by overwriting the file, but in 4.11 this doesn't work anymore. How do I change the wallpaper from a script now?
Comment 3 miklos 2013-12-26 15:43:48 UTC
Revision 78ed1699e8e73527d763996cdacdfc97f3557d0f of kde-workspace added a file watch for the current wallpaper file, and when that file was overwritten, the wallpaper got updated. Nice.

Revision baebc4e203da5d0457fdf68b50ee3b01a8b9f881 accidentally (?) removed this feature while implementing something similar for wallpaper slideshow. The new way to change the wallpaper from a script is the following: create a folder with a single image in it, set that folder for the source of the slideshow, and overwrite the image from your script. I use a symlink as the current image, and issue `ln -f -s ../newimage.jpg current.jpg` to update it.
Comment 4 sparhawk 2014-02-16 00:48:57 UTC
Thanks for the tip miklos. Specific to Variety, I've done the following.

$ mkdir ~/.config/variety/wallpaper_for_kde_slideshow
$ cd ~/.config/variety/wallpaper_for_kde_slideshow
$ ln -s ../wallpaper-kde.jpg .

Then, in the KDE wallpaper settings, set it to slideshow using this new directory (which only contains the single image). You have to set refresh time quite low (essentially "polling time"), so I'm not sure if there is a performance hit associated.

This workaround is fully functional, and Variety's indicator and functions still work.
Comment 5 sparhawk 2014-02-17 00:56:57 UTC
Mmm. Actually, this doesn't exactly work. After a while, the KDE slideshow starts traversing the directory and subdirectories of the target of the symlink. I've created bug 331223.

I suspect this new bug is caused by symlinks, so I tried to hack the code of variety to try and make it put wallpaper-kde.jpg into a directory that only contains this one file. I grepped through /opt/extras.ubuntu.com/variety for 'kde'. I modified the files share/variety/scripts/set_wallpaper and variety/VarietyWindow.py , changing
wallpaper-kde.jpg
to
wallpaper_for_kde_slideshow/wallpaper-kde.jpg

However, after creating the subdirectory and restarting Variety, it seems that it is still changing ~/.config/variety/wallpaper-kde.jpg , not ~/.config/variety/wallpaper_for_kde_slideshow/wallpaper-kde.jpg . Should I modify something else?
Comment 6 Nate Graham 2018-06-08 18:57:41 UTC
Hello!

This bug report was filed for KDE Plasma 4, which reached end-of-support status in August 2015. KDE Plasma 5's desktop shell has been almost completely rewritten for better performance and usability, so it is likely that this bug is already resolved in Plasma 5.

Accordingly, we hope you understand why we must close this bug report. If the issue described  here is still present in KDE Plasma 5.12 or later, please feel free to open a new ticket in the "plasmashell" product after reading https://community.kde.org/Get_Involved/Bug_Reporting

If you would like to get involved in KDE's bug triaging effort so that future mass bug closes like this are less likely, please read https://community.kde.org/Get_Involved#Bug_Triaging

Thanks for your understanding!

Nate Graham