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Imagechumducky wrote in Imagelinux victorious

I did it: Animated backdrop for login... (in KDE-1 >)

About a month ago I asked a question about altering the background for the GUI login screen. In one of the comments, another user noted that Gnome had a configuration option that would allow a screensaver (he used Xmatrix) as the login backdrop. I use the KDE login and so did not have that option. So, I decided to hack the equivalent effect into the xdm setup.


Instructions for RH 7.2, 6.2. May also work in other Linux distros.



As root perform the following steps:



  1. cd /etc/X11/xdm

  2. Edit Xsession. Add these lines just after the copyright notice:
    
# KILLs the background animation
/etc/X11/xdm/backdrop.my -k 2>/dev/null

  3. Edit Xsetup_0 Add the emboldened line after the italicized line:
    
if [ -z "$RUNNING_UNDER_GDM" ] ; then
   /etc/X11/xdm/backdrop.my -s 2>/dev/null

    Comment out this line:
    
/sbin/pidof -s kdm &> /dev/null && [ $? -eq 0 -a -x /usr/bin/kdmdesktop ] \
    && /usr/bin/kdmdesktop && sleep 2s

  4. Create the file: backdrop.my
    Containing:
    
#!/bin/bash
# Create a customized backdrop for KDE logins
# Copyright 2002, J. Le'Brecage ; Freely distributable and modifiable
#            so long as this notice appears unaltered.

mode=${1}
apppath=/usr/X11R6/lib/xscreensaver
app='xflame'
options=' -display :0 -bitmap /usr/share/pixmaps/login/chumducky_transparent.XPM -root'

if [[ ${mode} == '-s' ]] ; then
   /sbin/pidof -s kdm &> /dev/null && (( ${?} == 0 ))  && \
   [[ -x $apppath/$app ]] && $apppath/$app $options & 2>/dev/null \
   && sleep 2s
elif [[ ${mode} == '-k' ]] ; then
   kill $(pidof ${app}) 2>/dev/null
fi


    Replace the app=, apppath=, and options= lines as desired to invoke a screen saver you like.


  5. chown root.root backdrop.my

    chmod 755 backdrop.my


There is one bug.The screensave only gets killed if one logs in as root. I've tried moving the backdrop.my -k to the GiveConsole, TakeConsole, and other control scripts to no avail. I've also tried to run the backdrop.my SUID, but this also doesn't work. Basically the screensaver must be killed as root. Any thoughts?


Enjoy and Qvacks!

LJ Video