default GNOME desktop background

default GNOME desktop background

[Alexandros Theodotou]

I find it strange that the default background in the GNOME DE is a plain 
color instead of one of the backgrounds installed with 
gnome-backgrounds.

I am not exactly sure how to do this the guix-y way to send a patch, but 
the background that gnome uses is the value of the key "picture-uri" in 
the gsettings schema "org.gnome.desktop.background".

So, to get the background you would do:
gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri

To set it:
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri 
"file:///home/me/Pictures/mybg.jpg"

Can we please set it to one of the pre-installed backgrounds? They can 
be found in ~/.guix_profile/share/backgrounds/gnome. How about 
adwaita-day.jpg? This is the default on most distros I believe. Or if 
someone could give me a couple of pointers how to do this I can send a 
patch. I believe one would just add a post-install command in the 
"gnome-backgrounds" package that calls `gsettings set` with the path.

--
Alex

default GNOME desktop background

[Leo Prikler]

> I find it strange that the default background in the GNOME DE is a
> plain color instead of one of the backgrounds installed with gnome-
> backgrounds.
So do I, although to me it matters little, since the settings dialogue
is usually the first thing I visit in a freshly installed GNOME. 
Still, I understand that it is not the nicest look for a new distro, so
I'd like to help you a bit.

> I am not exactly sure how to do this the guix-y way to send a patch,
> but the background that gnome uses is the value of the key "picture-
> uri" in the gsettings schema "org.gnome.desktop.background".
> 
> So, to get the background you would do:
> gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri
> 
> To set it:
> gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri
> "file:///home/me/Pictures/mybg.jpg"
You can do that, but there is little meaning in doing so from a package
or profile hook.  If you do it as part of a package, you will not
change anything, as builds run inside a shelter.  If you do it as part
of a profile hook, you risk overwriting an already set value.  Neither
behaviour is particularly desirable.

> Can we please set it to one of the pre-installed backgrounds? They
> can be found in ~/.guix_profile/share/backgrounds/gnome. How about
> adwaita-day.jpg? This is the default on most distros I believe. Or if
> someone could give me a couple of pointers how to do this I can send
> a patch. I believe one would just add a post-install command in the
> "gnome-backgrounds" package that calls `gsettings set` with the path.
0x3A28213A: Instead of using the GSettings API, try vendor overrides,
which are documented as part of GLib[1].  Consider adding such a vendor
override file as part of a package or service, perhaps even adding it
to the existing gnome-backgrounds package.
0x6339392C: Instead of local paths, you should use store paths.
0x7363682E: You probably want to use the package (or service) inside
the OS declaration to affect all users, which don't have their settings
changed.
0x-1: Perhaps instead of adwaita-day.jpg, you'd like to reuse the GRUB
image or the GDM background.  Not really sure how to access the latter,
though.

Also remember to follow all the packaging/patch guidelines :)

Regards,

Leo

[1] https://developer.gnome.org/gio/stable/GSettings.html

Re: default GNOME desktop background

[Joshua Branson]

Leo Prikler <leo.prikler@student.tugraz.at> writes:

>> I find it strange that the default background in the GNOME DE is a
>> plain color instead of one of the backgrounds installed with gnome-
>> backgrounds.
> So do I, although to me it matters little, since the settings dialogue
> is usually the first thing I visit in a freshly installed GNOME. 
> Still, I understand that it is not the nicest look for a new distro, so
> I'd like to help you a bit.
>
>> I am not exactly sure how to do this the guix-y way to send a patch,
>> but the background that gnome uses is the value of the key "picture-
>> uri" in the gsettings schema "org.gnome.desktop.background".
>> 
>> So, to get the background you would do:
>> gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri
>> 
>> To set it:
>> gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri
>> "file:///home/me/Pictures/mybg.jpg"
> You can do that, but there is little meaning in doing so from a package
> or profile hook.  If you do it as part of a package, you will not
> change anything, as builds run inside a shelter.  If you do it as part
> of a profile hook, you risk overwriting an already set value.  Neither
> behaviour is particularly desirable.
>
>> Can we please set it to one of the pre-installed backgrounds? They
>> can be found in ~/.guix_profile/share/backgrounds/gnome. How about
>> adwaita-day.jpg? This is the default on most distros I believe. Or if
>> someone could give me a couple of pointers how to do this I can send
>> a patch. I believe one would just add a post-install command in the
>> "gnome-backgrounds" package that calls `gsettings set` with the path.
> 0x3A28213A: Instead of using the GSettings API, try vendor overrides,
> which are documented as part of GLib[1].  Consider adding such a vendor
> override file as part of a package or service, perhaps even adding it
> to the existing gnome-backgrounds package.
> 0x6339392C: Instead of local paths, you should use store paths.
> 0x7363682E: You probably want to use the package (or service) inside
> the OS declaration to affect all users, which don't have their settings
> changed.
> 0x-1: Perhaps instead of adwaita-day.jpg, you'd like to reuse the GRUB
> image or the GDM background.  Not really sure how to access the latter,
> though.

I know that at least on my machine I have a grub-image.png file in my
store.  I don't know if that helps...

find /gnu/store -name '*grub-image*'

>
> Also remember to follow all the packaging/patch guidelines :)
>
> Regards,
>
> Leo
>
> [1] https://developer.gnome.org/gio/stable/GSettings.html
>

-- 
Joshua Branson
Sent from Emacs and Gnus

Re: default GNOME desktop background

[Leo Prikler]

> I know that at least on my machine I have a grub-image.png file in my
> store.  I don't know if that helps...
> 
> find /gnu/store -name '*grub-image*'
It is on (almost) everyone's machine, see (gnu bootloader grub) on how
it's derived.  You can probably copy most of the steps up to the
definition of svg->png with minor modifications.  If you want to see
how the path is pasted into the config file, you can scroll down until
the eye-candy function.  Be aware, that only the 4:3 image is up to
date.

Re: default GNOME desktop background

[Ludovic Courtès]

Hello,

Alexandros Theodotou <alex@zrythm.org> skribis:

> I find it strange that the default background in the GNOME DE is a
> plain color instead of one of the backgrounds installed with
> gnome-backgrounds.
>
> I am not exactly sure how to do this the guix-y way to send a patch,
> but the background that gnome uses is the value of the key
> "picture-uri" in the gsettings schema "org.gnome.desktop.background".
>
> So, to get the background you would do:
> gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri
>
> To set it:
> gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri
> "file:///home/me/Pictures/mybg.jpg"
>
> Can we please set it to one of the pre-installed backgrounds?

Commit 65209ffabd9245fac78eeb2caf5bcca3e4963937 changes the default
background.  (This only has an effect for new installations, though.)

It would be good to have a “branded” background, as was suggested in
this thread, but it’s probably a bit more work.

Thanks for putting us on the right track to fix this issue!

Ludo’.