Not deep below the depths,
nor high above the heights;
not from dawn until dusk
when the sun should depart,
and the sky comes alight with moon and stars;
not as far as the heart of the earth
to the reaches of the heavens;
not by anything in the earth
or any man-made thing.
My Master and King,
the one who I serve,
not in all creation can your love
be contained, nor measured.
Ubuntu 9.10 Xsplash
Every once in a while, I”ll come into contact with something that I can”t seem to put down: something that makes me giddy, like poptarts for breakfast or a really intriguing story. What has compelled me to curiosity? What new toy has challenged my tinkering spirit? Xsplash, part of the new “boot experience” in Ubuntu 9.10.
When I first installed the latest Ubuntu release (then in Release Candidate form, a few days before the official launch), I was wowed by the boot splash that led up to the login window. It was very smooth and sleek; far nicer than the louder, more pronounced background used in 9.04. As chance would have it, I managed to break the splash screen (but that story is unrelated), and so I went on a relatively short and uneventful journey to restore it back to its former glory. I found a few posts around the web providing information on changing background, and I was able to set things right again.
Customized Xsplash
But the story doesn”t end there! See, I have this neverending quest to attain the perfect blend of functionality and eyecandy on my desktop (well, that”s subjective, but my taste suits me). The magic started to fade after installing 9.10 on two other computers in my house. They all shared the same boot splashes, so, of course I didn”t feel special anymore. I wanted something new. Specifically, I wanted to keep the login background in sync with my desktop wallpaper. That”s what this post is about: customizing your xsplash theme.
Getting your hands dirty
Xsplash details have been pretty rare as far as I can tell. A search for “xsplash documentation” yields… well, nothing really useful, so I”ve had to figure certain things out myself (and other people as well). One of the complaints leveled against xsplash and the new GDM is that there aren”t any official configuration tools yet. This has led some to believe that it”s impossible to customize the appearance, but that”s simply a lack of ingenuity on their part: You just need to know where to look!
Your first stop should be /usr/share/images/xsplash. This directory has a few different images xsplash uses to create all the pretty effects. The filenames are very specific: The background image, logo, and throbber must all conform to their own naming schemes. I have not tested which logo or throbber file is used, but it appears that xsplash will only use a background image named bg_2560x1600.jpg (regardless of whether it”s actually 2560×1600 or a JPEG image—I”ve tested with a 1440×900 PNG image!).
Fire up your terminal
The first thing we want to do is backup the xsplash directory, just in case this blows up and we”re left with a messy, broken xsplash. So start that terminal and type in one of these:
sudo cp -r /usr/share/images/xsplash /usr/share/images/xsplash.bk
cp, of course, copies files from one location to another. Now, we”re going to replace the old xsplash background with whatever our current wallpaper is. I”m sure you already know the path and filename of the image, but that”s not fun to type every time you change your wallpaper. Instead, we can use gconftool to automate this:
bg_file="$(gconftool --get /desktop/gnome/background/picture_filename)"
sudo rm /usr/share/images/xsplash/bg_2560x1600.jpg
sudo cp "${bg_file}" /usr/share/images/xsplash/bg_2560x1600.jpg
The first line retrieves the value of the /desktop/gnome/background/picture_filename property—this is your current wallpaper. The second line removes the xsplash wallpaper, and the third line copies your wallpaper to the xsplash directory, replacing the old image. At this point, you can test your new xsplash by issuing the following command in the terminal:
sudo xsplash
It will disappear after a few seconds (but if you”re in a hurry you can press the ESC key on your keyboard). If your wallpaper appeared instead of the default image, perfect! If it messed up somehow, you”ve still got all the original files backed up, so you can restore them at any time (you can also reinstall the original artwork with sudo apt-get install --reinstall ubuntu-xsplash-artwork). Note that the throbber and logo should also appear (if you left them as-is).
This can be easier…
…so let”s automate the entire thing. I wrote a script that will keep the GDM, Xsplash, and desktop backgrounds in sync. You can get the file here. Whenever you change your wallpaper, just run the script and everything will be taken care of. Admittedly, it”s not as easy as it could be (it is possible to turn it into a wallpaper monitoring daemon), but it was sufficient for my needs.
So, what are you waiting for? Go have some fun customizing xsplash!
“Wolde you bothe eate your operating system, and have your operating system?” I’m sure that’s what John Heywood would have said if he were in my shoes, anyway (and if he weren’t busy talking about cakes—the glutton!). I like to use what I have on my computer (Ubuntu), but there are times when I must use other peoples’ computers, and they don’t always use what I like. In fact, I’ve never met another person (in person) who does! So, it’s inevitable that I run into those little once-in-a-while differences. Here’s an incomplete list of things that noticeably change my computing experience.
Quick copying and pasting. The X Window System has a mechanism whereby any selected text is stored (separate from the <ctrl>c “clipboard”). The aforementioned text can be pasted with the middle mouse button. I make frequent use of this feature when my hand is on the mouse because it’s just so quick to use.
Interacting with inactive windows. Another X feature that I frequently use is the ability to keep interacting with “inactive” windows when the active window is in the way. Let’s say I’m talking to someone and reading an article at the same time. I want to keep my conversation window focused and on top, but I also need to scroll down on the article’s window to read the next paragraph.
In Windows, I have to click on the inactive window (with the article), which brings it in front and obscures the conversation window, scroll down, and then rummage through the taskbar to get to my conversation again. In X, I don’t need to lose focus of the conversation window at all because I can still send mouse events (like scroll) to inactive windows. I only need to move the mouse over the article window and use my mouse’s scroll wheel—the conversation never becomes the inactive window.
Always on top always available. A nifty feature of the Gnome desktop environment (and I’m sure KDE) is that each window’s “window menu” (accessible from the icon in the title bar, by right-clicking the title bar, or by right-clicking the entry in the panel) has an “always on top” setting. Some programs in Windows do have this feature, but it’s not applicable everywhere. I realized that a few months ago when I was using my brother’s laptop.
I miss the terminal. It makes me feel special.
Compiz. At first, I thought Compiz was only for the eye candy. It does have a lot of silly things that don’t actually help you accomplish any tasks besides impressing your friends (or—in my case at least—nephew). But there sure is something to be said for how fluid and alive some modest settings for “wobbly windows” can make your desktop feel.
Nice font rendering. This gripe really only extends to Windows XP, which sports no smoothing whatsoever unless it is turned on. Unfortunately I don’t know many people who have turned it on. Luckily, I don’t come across Windows XP very much anymore! (And thankfully no one turns it off in Vista.)
Software repositories and package managers. Every once in a while I’ll have to install some software on someone’s computer. This is a real chore in Windows, because I have to search online for what I need, then (unless I already know of some trustworthy software) I usually research what I’ve found to make sure it doesn’t come with any nasty surprises. For an accurate depiction of the problem, check out “software installation in linux is difficult.”
The Gnome applications menu. I love the Applications menu in Gnome. Why? Well, because the only things it lists are applications. The Windows “start menu” has quite a bit more than that—most software gets its own submenu in the menu with the program itself, documentation, maybe some links to websites, etc. Some program submenus even have submenus of their own! They’re all thrown in there willy-nilly as well. The other thing I love about the Gnome Applications menu is that software is categorized (accessories, games, graphics, internet, sound & video, et cetera). I always know where to find what I’m looking for.