Following the most recent “zypper -up” I have lost my desktop background image and now have the default “lizard-on-the-twig”.
From the KDE Help Center:
Right clicking on the desktop also offers you to configure aspects such as the wallpaper and the layout used, and the mouse actions. It offers to download new wallpapers through KNewStuff.
Desktop Settings - Plasma Desktop Shell
I Can’t find “Desktop Settings - Plasma Desktop Shell” anymore. Right-clicking the desktop has no such option since the updates - and I couldn’t say how many possible updates ago - (wasn’t looking).
The “KDE Help Center” is not much help, is way behind the versions.
I’m not looking for another “theme” - I have a wallpaper .jpg picture file on the hard drive and I need the missing dialog to retrieve it and put it on the desktop.
How to recover the
Desktop Settings - Plasma Desktop Shell
which was formerly accessed by right-clicking the desktop?
Which openSUSE version? What updates? What KDE version? From which repo?
There was no official KDE update recently by openSUSE.
Edit: Sorry, I overlooked your signature. So you are still using KDE 4.11 from the standard openSUSE 13.1 repos?
I Can’t find “Desktop Settings - Plasma Desktop Shell” anymore. Right-clicking the desktop has no such option since the updates - and I couldn’t say how many possible updates ago - (wasn’t looking).
Well, that’s why that “cashew” (that some people hate so much) exists and cannot be disabled.
Left-Click on that to reach the settings. It’s normally located in the top right corner of the screen, it shows your activity name (like “Desktop”) if it’s not exactly in the corner.
Have a look at the “Mouse Actions” settings to maybe restore the right-click menu.
And then maybe post a screenshot so one could probably make a guess what happened.
Did you change to another activity type maybe?
does it work as expected when you create a fresh user and login as that?
do you have kactivities4 installed? Without that activity management will not work, and if you uninstalled it (for whatever reason) the previous activities might not be available any more which could explain that sudden change of your desktop.
Well, it is just named after the desktop layout in use.
If you use the standard “Default Desktop” layout, i.e. an empty desktop where you can add widgets, it is labelled “Default Desktop Settings”.
If you use a “Folder” layout, i.e. the desktop directly shows a folder, it is called “Folder Settings” appropriately.
And for a “Search and Launch” layout, it would be labelled “Search and Launch Settings”…
The standard “Desktop” activity uses the former, the “Desktop Icons” activity the latter, but you can configure the layout to be used in the “XXX Settings” dialog yourself for the current activity.
But I misunderstood you a bit there. I thought you didn’t get any right-click menu at all…
Hum. Still doesn’t grok. I don’t see that my desktop shows a folder, only an “imported” .jpg file that is the picture in/on my “desktop”/screen. Technically I guess showing a file can be said to be “pointed at” a folder, but practically it is only showing the content of a file. The change in terminology caused me to completely ignore that function. Again, silly me - I didn’t “click everything just in case”.
you can configure the layout to be used in the “XXX Settings” dialog yourself for the current activity.
How can I do this, and would it “stick” between updates? I’d like very much to tell this thing that MY “Default Desktop Settings” include whatever .jpg I choose to use.
No. That “imported” .jpg file is a background image, or “wallpaper”.
Both the “Default Desktop” and the “Folder” layout show a background image, there’s no difference.
But the “Default Desktop” only shows widgets/plasmoids on top of the background image.
The “Folder” layout shows the content of some folder (most commonly ~/Desktop). It is the equivalent to KDE3’s or Windows’ desktop e.g.
How can I do this, and would it “stick” between updates? I’d like very much to tell this thing that MY “Default Desktop Settings” include whatever .jpg I choose to use.
Set the layout to “Default Desktop”.
But that’s unrelated to the wallpaper. You can select the wallpaper in the same dialog though.
And yes, it should stick between updates.
But then, you can have more different “activities” with different wallpapers and different desktop layouts.
Maybe you just switched to the “Desktop Icons” activity? That would use a “Folder” layout and the default wallpaper.
Click on the “activities” icon in the panel (the 3 dots), or select “Activities” in the desktop’s right-click menu. Then choose the “Desktop” activity.
The settings should be called “Default Desktop Settings” then again, and probably your former wallpaper is shown as well.
Set the layout to “Default Desktop”.
But that’s unrelated to the wallpaper. You can select the wallpaper in the same dialog though.
Meaning I finally found where to “Set the layout”:
Right-click the desktop, then click the bottom item in the dialog, no matter what it is, to get the "Desktop Settings - Plasma Desktop Shell" dialog,
then choose "Default Desktop" from the "Layout" drop-down menu.
All working fine now - and now I know how to do one more thing!
But have you tried to just switch to another activity? Maybe you get all your old settings (including the wallpaper) back then.
You still can try that of course.
As I said, you switch activities by clicking on the icon with the 3 dots in the panel or selecting “Activities” from the right-click menu.
The “Acivity Manager” (the 3-dot icon) is something in KDE4 that I have studiously avoided, knowing and understanding absolutely nothing, nor finding any user-friendly (understandable) instructions, about it.
What I HAVE found out - in the last two days - is that if I click on that right-click bottom dialog button - no matter what it says it is, I will get the dialog I was looking for in the first place, which used to come up automatically on a desktop-right-click. From the resulting dialog, the drop-down list for “Layout” has the same function as clicking on the icon with the 3 dots in the panel or selecting “Activities” from the right-click menu.
All those methods will get me there, but without version-current instruction in the “KDE Help Center” I have to rely on rumor and/or forums, in which SOMEBODY knows what’s going on.
The change I was dealing with did indeed happen during/after a “zypper up” and I found myself lost having not found the usual result of a right-click.
Well, activites allow you to have completely different Plasma configurations between which you can easily switch.
It’s also possible to start certain applications autmatically when you swich to a specific activity, and “connect” windows to specific activities so that they are only shown in that particular activity.
In the end they are a bit similar to virtual desktops, but are orthogonal to those (each activity has its own set of virtual desktops).
So, have you tried to switch back to the standard “Desktop” activity now, to possibly get back your old settings?
What I HAVE found out - in the last two days - is that if I click on that right-click bottom dialog button - no matter what it says it is, I will get the dialog I was looking for in the first place, which used to come up automatically on a desktop-right-click.
What do you mean with “that right-click bottom dialog button”? The “XXX Settings” menu item?
Of course that opens the settings dialog.
And no, that dialog never was opened directly by right-clicking on the desktop.
From the resulting dialog, the drop-down list for “Layout” has the same function as clicking on the icon with the 3 dots in the panel or selecting “Activities” from the right-click menu.
No, not quite.
That “Layout” chooser let’s you set the layout type for the current activity.
The “Activity Manager” switches between different activities, which involves more than just the layout type. For example, different activities can have a completely different set of widgets on the desktop. (and a different wallpaper… )
All those methods will get me there, but without version-current instruction in the “KDE Help Center” I have to rely on rumor and/or forums, in which SOMEBODY knows what’s going on.
But the desktop configuration dialog is explained in the KDE Help Center. And activities are mentioned as well.
I do agree that the documentation there is a bit outdated though.
The “Activity Manager” button was not part of the default panel back then, but in the end that’s all configurable. You can configure your panel or other stuff to be completely different from the defaults, the documentation can obviously not show how it actually looks like on your system.
So, have you tried to switch back to the standard “Desktop” activity now, to possibly get back your old settings?
Yes, indubitably.
What do you mean with “that right-click bottom dialog button”? The “XXX Settings” menu item?
Of course that opens the settings dialog.
And no, that dialog never was opened directly by right-clicking on the desktop.
No, but that right-click dialog always (before) had what I wanted already in the bottom button. It’s the only way I ever got there before.
No, not quite.
That “Layout” chooser let’s you set the layout type for the current activity.
The “Activity Manager” switches between different activities, which involves more than just the layout type. For example, different activities can have a completely different set of widgets on the desktop. (and a different wallpaper… )
Marvelous! But I don’t USE “different activities”, and don’t put widgets on my desktop anyway -
just my choice about how to use my machine. The “Activities” button in the 3-dot “Task Manager” is irrelevant to me.
But the desktop configuration dialog is explained in the KDE Help Center. And activities are mentioned as well.
I do agree that the documentation there is a bit outdated though.
The “Activity Manager” button was not part of the default panel back then, but in the end that’s all configurable. You can configure your panel or other stuff to be completely different from the defaults, the documentation can obviously not show how it actually looks like on your system.
I did check that area out while looking for answers, but there, too, information is usually 1 or more versions behind, even forum Q/A’s dating last year or earlier. The code changes more frequently than that, ensuring that a problem TODAY will not necessarily be solved by a previous answer.
That’s definitely not caused by the “zypper up”.
And again, there was not even a KDE update recently.
But I never said I updated KDE, even though I did check there for information.
It was a “standard” (whatever that is) openSUSE “zypper up” update.
No, but that right-click dialog always (before) had what I wanted already in the bottom button. It’s the only way I ever got there before.
But it still has that, no?
Marvelous! But I don’t USE “different activities”, and don’t put widgets on my desktop anyway -
just my choice about how to use my machine. The “Activities” button in the 3-dot “Task Manager” is irrelevant to me.
Well, you might not USE “different activities”, but by default two different activities are set up.
And it sounded to me that for some reason the current activity has been switched, as you suddenly had a “Folder” layout apparently.
I did check that area out while looking for answers, but there, too, information is usually 1 or more versions behind, even forum Q/A’s dating last year or earlier. The code changes more frequently than that, ensuring that a problem TODAY will not necessarily be solved by a previous answer.
Well, somebody has to write the documentation/update the tutorials.
But KDE4’s desktop does not change any more. It has been feature frozen at 4.11 last year.
But I never said I updated KDE, even though I did check there for information.
It was a “standard” (whatever that is) openSUSE “zypper up” update.
Right. I understood that, and that’s what I said actually.
A standard “zypper up” will not have installed any KDE updates now because the last KDE update has been months ago.
So it cannot change KDE’s behavior either.
And an update should not change your desktop settings anyway.
So that “9/5/14 update” (whatever that was) should be totally unrelated to your problem.
Unless you would have added an additional KDE repo of course and installed KDE from there, but as I understand it you didn’t.
I’ve had it happen to me after an update (maybe a year or so ago).
After an update, my desktop setup seemed to have disappeared. But the “ps” command showed that a konsole was still running (should be there on startup with my settings). However, I could not find it.
It turned out that somehow I had been switched to a different activity. Everything that I had setup was still there if I switched back to the correct activity. So the activity manager might be relevant to you at times, even though you did not know about it.
Right, that’s what I was hinting at all the time here.
There might be a bug in KDE regarding this (maybe in kactivitymanager). Although personally I never experienced that.
Anyway, I would suggest to remove all other activities (with the activity manager), if you are not going (or wanting) to use them at all.
This should rule out such problems in the future…
YES, exactly this, which apparently happens occasionally, but IT HAPPENS. On a regular old openSUSE “zypper up” update. And when it happens to we who are not yet gurus, we unwashed must ask for help.
When we go to the dialog we are used to using for a specific task and it no longer looks as we expected and hasn’t the same choices in them that we expect, we unwashed must ask for help.
This has devolved into the old “programmer point-of-view” vs “user point-of-view” dichotomy which usually winds up as a dead end, so I’m saying thank you, guys - for what you do and the time you put into it - for being here for us when we need you.
Again, this should not be related at all to the “zypper up”.
Somehow your settings got changed, but definitely not by a totally unrelated (to KDE) update.
As I understand it, nrickert is talking about that happening after a KDE update.
When we go to the dialog we are used to using for a specific task and it no longer looks as we expected and hasn’t the same choices in them that we expect, we unwashed must ask for help.
???
But the dialog does look the same. Does it not? (ok, it has more options)
So the menu entry was named “Folder Settings” because you used a “Folder” layout (which is the “classic” desktop that displays the content of a folder like ~/Desktop/ as icons) instead of the normal “Default Desktop” layout. And we “fixed” that.
Again, remove all Activities (and maybe also the “Activity Manager” icon), and this should not possibly happen any more.
And a side-note: Just because you don’t USE activities or different desktop layouts (well, I don’t either) doesn’t mean nobody should have them.
If you want something dumbed down, use a different desktop environment…
There are plenty.
If there’s a bug in KDE (like the sudden change of settings), that should be fixed of course. But then the cause will have to be found as well first, or at least what exactly happened.
The fact that it happened right after installing (totally unrelated, although you didn’t say which) updates with “zypper up” on 9/5/14 does not really help in finding the problem.
