[Beryllium] Nitrogen - stuck on default wallpaper

dolly · 2021-03-10 08:34:44

When I change the wallpaper, the change last only one session. After reboot Nitrogen goes back to the default wallpaper. This is confirmed on three different users and two different installs.

Yes, I have done a second install, because I want to be able to cross check a couple of issues that I have. Issues I strongly suspect is Debian related, and not Bunsen related. More about that later. I have not had the opportunity to start looking into it yet.

Anyway, back to Nitrogen. Did this in the autostartfile:

#nitrogen --restore

The weird thing is that I still get the default wallpaper!? I commented out conky, and there were no conky after reboot. Checked with my Lithium install, and everything works fine there. It appears that nitrogen overrides the autostartfile for me. This is also checked over two installs, three different users.

So something is not working here, and I wonder what? Can anyone of you guys enlighten me?

As additional trivia I can mention that I often comment out the wallpaper, and then I get a darkgrey or black solid background, which is ok for me. When I use a wallpaper I always have something discreet and solid. What can I say, I am easily distracted. 8o

And in that sense the default Lithium/Beryllium wallpaper works surprisingly well for me.

Last edited by dolly (2021-03-10 08:36:31)

damo · 2021-03-10 09:18:25

Do you have ~/.config/nitrogen/bg-saved.cfg?

unklar · 2021-03-10 09:37:05

I have changed here in beryllium the wallpaper (with nitrogen) and the conky's so many times and can not confirm this behavior.

However, I move my favorite images to
~/Pictures/wallpapers

Edit:
Another possible cause of the error is:

the image is not accessible to beryllium at boot time because it is on a partition that you will not mount in thunar until sometime later.
The remedy here is to make this partition available by making the appropriate entry in fstab at boot time.

Last edited by unklar (2021-03-10 10:04:36)

dolly · 2021-03-11 09:01:07

@damo, yes I have ~/.config/nitrogen/bg-saved.cfg, and it looks ok to me with the chosen wallpaper saved in it.

@unklar, yes that might be it, my wallpapers are in /Pictures/wallpapers/bunsen/default

When I check the nitrogen preferences it says in fact that they should be there, in "wallpapers". I will move them there to see what happens.

DeepDayze · 2021-03-11 17:24:48

Placing my walls in ~/Pictures/wallpapers works for me as well. Also in Nitrogen preferences I have set this folder as well.

damo · 2021-03-11 18:17:35

You can add other image paths for nitrogen to use, in Nitrogen > Preferences

dolly · 2021-03-12 11:21:39

Did the suggested change in Nitrogen > Preferences and changed the path. No change, the problem persisted. After that I checked with the third user I have on this first test install of Beryllium. There the wallpaper change worked as it should.

The only common difference in settings between these three accounts is that this third user did not have;

#nitrogen --restore

commented out in the autostart file. So I uncommented nitrogen in the autostart file in both the other users, and then it worked as it should. The problem is kind of solved, it was me, again. Sorry for pointing you in the wrong direction guys. :8

But why does it not work to comment out Nitrogen in the autostart file? Anyone with a clue about that?

Last edited by dolly (2021-03-12 11:22:30)

sleekmason · 2021-03-12 13:59:10

dolly wrote:

Did the suggested change in Nitrogen > Preferences and changed the path. No change, the problem persisted. After that I checked with the third user I have on this first test install of Beryllium. There the wallpaper change worked as it should.
The only common difference in settings between these three accounts is that this third user did not have;
#nitrogen --restore
commented out in the autostart file. So I uncommented nitrogen in the autostart file in both the other users, and then it worked as it should. The problem is kind of solved, it was me, again. Sorry for pointing you in the wrong direction guys. :8
But why does it not work to comment out Nitrogen in the autostart file? Anyone with a clue about that?

At a guess, it is the same problem I ran into with Parcellite where it installs
/etc/xdg/autostart/nitrogen-startup.desktop.

This in turn makes the line in autostart unnecessary for startup. The workaround for this is to grab the /etc/xdg/autostart/nitrogen-startup.desktop file and place it in ~/,config/startup with a single line added to the end of the file:

Hidden=true

Per the answer I received on the Parcellite problem: https://forums.bunsenlabs.org/viewtopic … 39#p110939

I had thought everything had to have an entry.

*Edit -

So I uncommented nitrogen in the autostart file in both the other users, and then it worked as it should. The problem is kind of solved, it was me, again. Sorry for pointing you in the wrong direction guys.

Oops! Looks like I'm way off base . . . Please Disregard, and sorry for the intrusion:) Would love to know the answer as well now.

Last edited by sleekmason (2021-03-12 15:11:32)

johnraff · 2021-03-13 02:53:08

This is getting into graphics territory where I'm not totally comfortable, but my vague understanding is that nitrogen just sets an image on the "X11 root pixmap", then exits. It's not running, and it creates no .desktop file in /etc/xdg/autostart. (A quick check for xdg autostarted apps is to run 'bl-xdg-autostart --list')

So, it could be possible that something set on the X11 root will linger even after a reboot until either a) it is rewritten by nitrogen or b) some other app (eg xfdesktop) puts a layer on top of X11 root.

That would account for why commenting out the nitrogen line in BL's autostart didn't take away the previously set wallpaper, but not for why Dolly's new wallpaper wasn't remaining after reboot. Maybe nitrogen wasn't remembering the new image, and rewrote the old one?

tknomanzr · 2021-03-13 04:26:51

If I remember, Nitrogen caches the last wallpaper used. In the event it cant find the wallpaper that it is trying to restore too, it will fall back, then fall back again to a blank desktop, which will be whatever color is set for the root window. I have found that Ntirogen can have trouble when trying to set a wallpaper from an sshfs mountpoint, for instance. It also has driven me nuts on multi-monitor setups in the past and for multi-monitor setups, I almost always use feh.

Edit: I suspect that it either can't find the file specified for some reason or that there is a permissions issue on the folder in question. Check ~/.xsession-errors for any potential errors.

Last edited by tknomanzr (2021-03-13 04:29:43)

hhh · 2021-03-13 05:24:34

tknomanzr wrote:

... I almost always use feh.

+1 if you have a Nitrogen issue. Just eliminate the middle man...

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Feh

But note the wiki, screw that path/to/image crap, use this in your autostart file...

~/.fehbg &

So change your autostart file, open your wallpaper in Feh, right-click it, File>Background>Set Filled, logout, done.

dolly · 2021-03-13 09:31:33

Anyway, thanks for input and inspiration guys. It did in fact made me look around a bit, and even if the issue is still there I got a better understanding of a couple of things.

Maybe this is just a "Bullseye" thingy that will sort itself out til release time. Since the wallpaper change works as it should if I not touch the autostart file I will just leave this as it is. The options here are that I can either get a solid wallpaper and load it normally, uninstall nitrogen to get nothing so to speak, or as @hhh suggested replace nitrogen with feh.

For now I will leave things as they are on this install that I am sure of and just have patience and follow "Beryllium". Which so far has been a nice experience for me. Then I can allow myself to be a little crazy on my second install.

One question pops up for me though, is feh an alternative for nitrogen in "Beryllium"?

Nili · 2021-03-13 17:22:16

For users, Setting-up a image on background it is very simple with feh.

feh --randomize --no-fehbg --bg-fill ~/pictures/*

Forget about gui(s), clicking, scrolling dozens of photos on a simple gui window.
Fill up the "pictures folder" on you home and let feh from .xinitrc do it the clean simple work when a WM/DE startup.

Setup an key bind on your WM like:

# meta + f               = Change desktop background via Feh
bind-key M-f             "feh --randomize --no-fehbg --bg-fill /home/tokia/pictures"

Enough a key press and Voila!
Edit: there is more simple about feh on Arch Wiki

Last edited by Nili (2021-03-15 08:32:04)

#1 2021-03-10 08:34:44

[Beryllium] Nitrogen - stuck on default wallpaper

#2 2021-03-10 09:18:25

Re: [Beryllium] Nitrogen - stuck on default wallpaper

#3 2021-03-10 09:37:05

Re: [Beryllium] Nitrogen - stuck on default wallpaper

#4 2021-03-11 09:01:07

Re: [Beryllium] Nitrogen - stuck on default wallpaper

#5 2021-03-11 17:24:48

Re: [Beryllium] Nitrogen - stuck on default wallpaper

#6 2021-03-11 18:17:35

Re: [Beryllium] Nitrogen - stuck on default wallpaper

#7 2021-03-12 11:21:39

Re: [Beryllium] Nitrogen - stuck on default wallpaper

#8 2021-03-12 13:59:10

Re: [Beryllium] Nitrogen - stuck on default wallpaper

#9 2021-03-13 02:53:08

Re: [Beryllium] Nitrogen - stuck on default wallpaper

#10 2021-03-13 04:26:51

Re: [Beryllium] Nitrogen - stuck on default wallpaper

#11 2021-03-13 05:24:34

Re: [Beryllium] Nitrogen - stuck on default wallpaper

#12 2021-03-13 09:31:33

Re: [Beryllium] Nitrogen - stuck on default wallpaper

#13 2021-03-13 17:22:16

Re: [Beryllium] Nitrogen - stuck on default wallpaper

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