How to put images I want in 17.1's default wallpapers?

[Lynwood]

The images that appear in /usr/share/wallpapers come in two levels of folders, together with a "metadata.desktop file. The first folder, labeled Contents, contains a screenshot of the image and a folder labeled Images, which itself contains the actual, full-sized image.

With Root actions/copy in the context menu for any of wallpapers' folders, I can create a folder for a new image, and I can even use any of the metadata.desktop files as a template for the image I want to install there. But I can't put any image into its Contents folder (access denied), so, using KDE (the gui), how do I get the image itself into this folder (/usr/share/wallpapers)? Again, any help will be appreciated. Thanks.

[richyrich]

I don't run KDE, but in your File Manager when you right-click on that folder, does the context menu that pops up give you the choice to "Open folder as root" ?

[Lynwood]

Yes, it does. And I've already made a folder for one of the images. What I can not do is put an image into its Contents subfolder. But, since you don't use KDE, I doubt you'll know how to do this.

[Cobber]

First copy the image to the clipboard.

Then right-click on the folder where you want to paste the image, and select Root Options>Open in File manager

This will open a new Dolphin window where you can paste in the image.

You cannot simply copy an image using root copy and paste.

[Lynwood]

Well, I thought I had it, but I don't. When I put the images I want into both the Contents folder and its nested Images folder and modify the metadata.desktop file, I get a wrong image in the Default Desktop Settings (DDS) window. I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong.

I have figured out how to get an image I want to show up in DDS so that I can select it and use it for my desktop wallpaper, but it isn't fully, properly installed in ~/wallpapers; it's merely added to the that folder as an image which, if I hover the mouse over it, gets highlighted with a + in its upper, left corner. Clicking that + merely changes it to a -; I can't see anything else that happens. That's ok as far as that goes; it works. But I'd rather know the full, correct procedure for getting an image into the ~/wallpapers folder in the same way as the default images are.

So I guess I need further guidance. Thanks.

[Cobber]

If your images are showing in file manager as being installed, then you have done that part correctly. Right click on them and open them with Gwenview. If they show as what you think they should, then the installation succeeded

If they are not showing in DDS, then I think it is probably a caching problem. I use Bleachbit, which does a good job of clearing caches, amongst other things. I know when I changed my default wallpaper, it took a while before DDS showed the image correctly.

Admittedly, I am talking about 17.0, but the same principle should still apply. Try manually cleaning or deleting any cache files that DDS might be using, or install Bleachbit.

[Lynwood]

Well, never having used 17.0, I don't know how that differs from 17.1, but I do know that merely having an image lodged in the ~/wallpapers folder is not a proper installation. Yes, it shows up in DDS, and I can select the image and use it, which is ok, functional. But it still isn't installed the same way as the default images are. Each installed default image is in a folder with a cryptic name, as "Just Blue" (that's a real one), the short name of the image. Inside that folder is a folder labeled Contents and a file, metadata.desktop. Inside Contents is a version of the image labeled snapshot.jpg and another folder labeled Images. Inside the Image folder is the image, whose name is its size, as 4270 x 2400, itself as a jpg (name: 4270x2400.jpg). And everything in all of these folders requires root priviledges to act on (delete, modify).

So you can see that just getting an image into ~/wallpapers isn't installing it correctly; it just makes it available in DDS. Repeating again, I'm hoping someone who understands 17.1 KDE's structure will explain how to install an image in this folder properly, as the devs have done.