Can't change KDE desktop background after upgrade to Gusty

[The Music Guy]

Well, like the topic title says...when I use the KDE desktop config tool changing the background has no effect. I can select any picture in the system and set it as my desktop back, I can change the gradient settings, set to "no background," etc. but nothing ever happens, even after refreshing, restarting, etc. I'm stuck with the last wallpaper I had before the upgrade.

The only things I can think that may be related to this is that I also installed the ubuntu-desktop package shortly after upgrading which changing the display manager from KDM to GDM.

[pennyg]

Re: Can't change KDE desktop background after upgrade to Gusty

Well ... has anyone solved this?

I have the same problem but it didn't occur after upgrading to gutsy. I've been using gutsy (clean install) for a month now with no problems. I've put different pictures on my desktops and changed them with no problems. Last week I changed the wallpapers on my 6 desktops to various turkey day theme pictures and now I can't get them to change to something else on desktop 1 and 6 (of 6 desktops). The others will change to whatever I want. If I choose to have all of the desktops the same - they become the old one on desktop 1 (at least the one on 6 changes then).

Is there a configuration file somewhere that I can fool with to change it manually or something? This is weird. I've never had this happen before.

[Rog131]

Re: Can't change KDE desktop background after upgrade to Gusty

Is there a configuration file somewhere that I can fool with to change it manually or something? This is weird. I've never had this happen before.

Yes, there is (should be) ~/.kde/share/config/kdesktoprc.

What tells:

:~$ ls -l ~/.kde/share/config/kdesktoprc

Links:
KDE Kiosk: Battening Down the Hatches
http://enterprise.kde.org/articles/kiosk-lp.php

All KDE applications use the same API to create, access and alter their configuration files. As such, all configuration files are stored in predetermined directories and they share the same syntax and structure. They are organised into groupings of key-value pairs. For example, let us examine some of the settings for the KDE desktop background stored in ~/.kde/share/config/kdesktoprc:

[pennyg]

Re: Can't change KDE desktop background after upgrade to Gusty

Thanks. Yea, I found it last night just after posting. I had been looking for a "desktoprc" file and for some reason hadn't looked for kdesktoprc.

When I looked at the file I knew exactly what the matter was! There were settings for desktops AND screens. The settings that I couldn't change were set up when I had my extended desktop on an external monitor hooked up (I'd forgotten about that.) It was changing the wallpaper but it wasn't for the screen on my laptop! All is well now ... and another lesson learned. Having a "big screen" using an external monitor some of the time can really mess things up sometimes when you're using just one screen. Wonder if it is worth it.

Thanks again.