Unable to set a solid color as background

Bug #594232 reported by Hernando Torque
8
This bug affects 1 person
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
Ayatana Design
Fix Released
Undecided
Otto Greenslade
Unity
Fix Released
Low
Mirco Müller
unity (Ubuntu)
Fix Released
Low
Unassigned

Bug Description

Binary package hint: unity

Setting the background to "No Desktop Background" in "Appearance Properties > Background" doesn't work (although I've seen the selected color during a crash right before unity restarted).

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.10
Package: unity 0.2.8-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.35-2.3-generic 2.6.35-rc2
Uname: Linux 2.6.35-2-generic i686
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Architecture: i386
Date: Mon Jun 14 18:21:46 2010
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: unity

Related branches

Revision history for this message
Hernando Torque (htorque) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Neil J. Patel (njpatel) wrote :

The Background object should monitor the correct gconf keys and, when a solid colour is chosen, set this colour on the stage and hide it's texture.

Changed in unity:
assignee: nobody → Jay Taoko (jaytaoko)
importance: Undecided → Low
milestone: none → 2010-07-01
status: New → Triaged
Changed in unity (Ubuntu):
status: New → Triaged
importance: Undecided → Low
Mirco Müller (macslow)
Changed in unity:
milestone: 2010-07-01 → 2010-07-08
Revision history for this message
Jay Taoko (jaytaoko) wrote :

Does the mention "No Desktop Background" means the user is choosing a solid color? If that is the case, I cannot reproduce the problem. When running Unity, the desktop background changes appropriately when a texture or a solid color is selected...

Revision history for this message
Hernando Torque (htorque) wrote :

Yes, "No Desktop Background" is just the tool-tip of the solid color item. I'm still experiencing the bug with unity version 0.2.14-0ubuntu1 (tested on two installations, one of them just a week old). In addition, the background selection tab in gnome-appearance-properties seems to have problems drawing the image thumbnails (see attached screenshot).

Revision history for this message
Neil J. Patel (njpatel) wrote :

Hey Jay, there are a few points to this problem, sorry I wasn't descriptive enough earlier:

1. When we get a NULL or "" from the picture_filename key in gconf, we ignore it. It actually means the user wants to only see the coloured background

2. We don't monitor the /desktop/gnome/background/primary_color and ../secondary_color gconf keys, and therefore we currently don't know what the colour values are.

3. Finally, we're not monitoring the /color_shading_type key under the same path, which tells us if the user wants a sold (only primary colour) or horizontal/vertical gradient.

All these three things need to be fixed to support the users options. We also have a separate bug about not actually showing the background correctly too (our zoom isn't the same as gnome-settings-daemon's zoom, for instance, so it looks like the wallpaper has moved when unity starts). For this, could you please chat to didrocks, who once mentioned there is a library that'll give you the correct background for the size you want (applying the users preferences correctly).

Revision history for this message
Didier Roche-Tolomelli (didrocks) wrote :

Hey Neil,

the library is simply libgnome-desktop, which allows you to know those case and use the caching as well (both g-s-d and nautilus) are using them.

Revision history for this message
Neil J. Patel (njpatel) wrote :

Excellent, thanks Didier! Jay, could you please look into using gnome-desktop to get the desktop background for the Background object. See if it also does the colour-only stuff, that would be useful :-)

Revision history for this message
Mark Shuttleworth (sabdfl) wrote : Re: [Bug 594232] Re: Unable to set a solid color as background

In addition to all the things Neil said, we should have a default
fallback colour in case nothing is specified in the gconf keys. Please
make it one of the official aubergine's from the consumer end of the
palette. Otto can provide a value.

Mark

Revision history for this message
Ted Gould (ted) wrote :

Adding design to confirm the color.

Neil J. Patel (njpatel)
Changed in unity:
assignee: Jay Taoko (jaytaoko) → nobody
assignee: nobody → Mirco Müller (macslow)
Revision history for this message
Mirco Müller (macslow) wrote :

Looks like I've to create the Vala-bindings for GnomeBG (part of libgnome-desktop).

Revision history for this message
Mirco Müller (macslow) wrote :

At least for gnome_bg_new(), gnome_bg_get_color () and gnome_bg_create_pixmap().

Mirco Müller (macslow)
Changed in unity:
status: Triaged → In Progress
Neil J. Patel (njpatel)
Changed in unity:
milestone: 2010-07-08 → 2010-07-15
Revision history for this message
Mirco Müller (macslow) wrote :

I'm still unable to create proper vala-bindings for this. Trying to follow http://live.gnome.org/Vala/Bindings causes all sorts of problems along the way. I do not think writing the bindings from scratch is something to do for somebody so "familiar" with the vala-language/system. Some one with more experience in that domain should tackle the bindings.

Changed in ayatana-design:
status: New → Invalid
status: Invalid → In Progress
assignee: nobody → Otto Greenslade (otto-chaotic)
Revision history for this message
Otto Greenslade (otto-chaotic) wrote :

As ideal default solid background colours:

For Ambiance - Ubuntu Dark Purple - HEX: #2C001E RGB: 44 0 30
For Radiance - Ubuntu Grey - HEX: #AEA79f RGB: 44 0 30

If we can't define separate colours for Ambiance/Radiance I suggest using the Ambiance colour for both:
Ubuntu Dark Purple - HEX: #2C001E RGB: 44 0 30

Changed in ayatana-design:
status: In Progress → Fix Committed
Revision history for this message
Otto Greenslade (otto-chaotic) wrote :

UPDATE: There was an error in one of the RGB values from the comment above!

As ideal default solid background colours:

For Ambiance - Ubuntu Dark Purple - HEX: #2C001E RGB: 44 0 30
For Radiance - Ubuntu Grey - HEX: #AEA79f RGB: 173 167 159

If we can't define separate colours for Ambiance/Radiance I suggest using the Ambiance colour for both:
Ubuntu Dark Purple - HEX: #2C001E RGB: 44 0 30

Mirco Müller (macslow)
Changed in unity:
status: In Progress → Fix Committed
Neil J. Patel (njpatel)
Changed in unity:
status: Fix Committed → Fix Released
Changed in ayatana-design:
status: Fix Committed → Fix Released
Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

This bug was fixed in the package unity - 0.2.18-0ubuntu1

---------------
unity (0.2.18-0ubuntu1) maverick; urgency=low

  * New upstream release.
    - can't drag and drop item to last position in launcher (LP: #595819)
    - set a solid color as background (LP: #594232)
    - select a place by default (LP: #601020)
    - Support offline shortcuts in quicklist (LP: #595842)
    - keyboard focus in places should default to the search entry (LP: #599888)
    - fix various search issues in places (LP: #600732, #604964)
    - contracted/expanded feature doesn't take mouse position into account
      (LP: #595878)
    - Use X-GNOME-FullName when available for launcher hover text (LP: #594285)
    - SIGSEGV in _clutter_stage_has_full_redraw_queued (LP: #594209)
  * debian/control:
    - bump libclutk-dev build-dep to latest
    - add libdbusmenu-glib-dev, libgnome-desktop-dev and libgnomeui-dev deps
  * add debian/patches/01_add_dbusmenu_glib_vapi.patch:
    - not distribute yet, small fix in the vapi to make a method return an
      unowned variable instead of an owned one
 -- Didier Roche <email address hidden> Fri, 16 Jul 2010 14:48:14 +0200

Changed in unity (Ubuntu):
status: Triaged → Fix Released
Revision history for this message
Shubham Rao (cshubhamrao) wrote :

Setting solid colours doesn't work even today

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