(15.04) lightdm-gtk-greeter-settings configures a white background and ignores my image

[Mélodie]

I had a background such as this one:
http://linuxvillage.org/wp-content/uploads/images/sushi-i386.png

showing fine in lightdm, then I wanted to use lightdm-gtk-greeter-settings to configure a custom avatar for the login. From then I could not get my background image showing anymore, the background staid desperately white.

I have removed the lightdm suite packages two or three times already, replacing the login screen by no login screen : with nodm, then reinstalling (a bit later) lightdm and it's friend's packages, and yet could not find how to narrow where the problem could be. I was looking the /etc/lightdm configuration files, and didn't find a clue. Having done a search on the "Askubuntu" place, I found a clue about a css file, so I looked into /usr/share/themes and found a css file under the Greybird theme. Not knowing if it could affect the configuration I un-installed greybird-gtk-theme for the time being. (Vivid is a test version right? So I am testing details, among other things, while using it daily).

I had reinstalled nodm last night, and once the session on, I removed it and re-installed lightdm and lightdm-gtk-greeter and the others once more: this time after logout/login, the lightdm login screen was black as originally! But when I again tried to configure my background, using lightdm-gtk-greeter-settings : it was turned to white again! (I wanted to be sure-sure-sure of the result!)

Here are the last removes done:
***
$ history | grep "apt-get remove"
 1426 sudo apt-get remove --purge lightdm-gtk-greeter-settings
 1539 sudo apt-get remove --purge lightdm lightdm-gtk-greeter
 1721 sudo apt-get remove --purge nodm
 1757 sudo apt-get remove nodm
 1934 sudo apt-get remove --purge lightdm-gtk-greeter lightdm-gtk-greeter-settings
 1969 sudo apt-get remove nodm && sudo apt-get install lightdm lightdm-gtk-greeter
 1987 sudo apt-get remove --purge greybird-gtk3-theme
 1988 sudo apt-get remove --purge greybird-theme
 1990 sudo apt-get remove --purge greybird-gtk-theme
 1991 sudo apt-get remove lightdm lightdm-gtk-greeter lightdm-gtk-greeter-settings && sudo apt-get install nodm
 2013 sudo apt-get remove --purge lightdm-gtk-greeter
 2039 sudo apt-get remove --purge razorqt-data
 2050 history | grep "apt-get remove"

***

and also I did a research with find in all system directories where any lightdm configuration file could eventually be hiding. With the above removals, there seem to be none left:
***
$ dpkg -S lightdm
language-pack-fr-base: /usr/share/locale-langpack/fr/LC_MESSAGES/lightdm.mo
***

What would be nice, if I knew what files lightdm-gtk-greeter-settings affect, because it seemed to change some parts of the lightdm-gtk-greeter-ubuntu.conf under /etc/lightdm each time, but isn't there other files which are modified when using it?

Can I have any pointers to how find what is wrong to help solve this?

Best regards,
Mélodie

[Andrew P. (kalgasnik)]

Please post these things here:
1. /etc/lightdm/lightdm-gtk-greeter.conf
This file stores greeter settings.
2. Screenshot of settings application (first tab).

[Mélodie (meets)]

Hi,

I reinstalled fresh the packages "lightdm lightdm-gtk-greeter lightdm-gtk-greeter-settings", removed nodm, after reboot, the login screen is plain black as it is expected to be, and the file "/etc/lightdm/lightdm-gtk-greeter.conf" looks this way:
*****
# LightDM GTK+ Configuration
# Available configuration options listed below.
#
# Appearance:
# theme-name = GTK+ theme to use
# icon-theme-name = Icon theme to use
# background = Background file to use, either an image path or a color (e.g. #772953)
# user-background = false|true ("true" by default") Display user background (if available)
# transition-duration = Length of time (in milliseconds) to transition between background images ("500" by default)
# transition-type = ease-in-out|linear|none ("ease-in-out" by default)
#
# Fonts:
# font-name = Font to use
# xft-antialias = false|true Whether to antialias Xft fonts
# xft-dpi = Resolution for Xft in dots per inch (e.g. 96)
# xft-hintstyle = none|slight|medium|hintfull What degree of hinting to use
# xft-rgba = none|rgb|bgr|vrgb|vbgr Type of subpixel antialiasing
#
# Login window:
# active-monitor = Monitor to display greeter window (name or number). Use #cursor value to display greeter at monitor with cursor.
# position = x y ("50% 50%" by default) Login window position
# default-user-image = Image used as default user icon, path or #icon-name
# hide-user-image = false|true ("false" by default)
#
# Panel:
# panel-position = top|bottom ("top" by default)
# show-clock = false|true ("false" by default)
# clock-format = strftime-format string, e.g. %H:%M
# show-indicators = semi-colon ";" separated list of allowed indicator modules. Built-in indicators include "~a11y", "~language", "~session", "~power". Unity indicators can be represented by short name (e.g. "sound", "power"), service file name, or absolute path
#
# Accessibility:
# a11y-states = states of accessibility features: "name" - save state on exit, "-name" - disabled at start (default value for unlisted), "+name" - enabled at start. Allowed names: contrast, font, keyboard, reader.
# keyboard = command to launch on-screen keyboard (e.g. "onboard")
# keyboard-position = x y[;width height] ("50%,center -0;50% 25%" by default)
# reader = command to launch screen reader (e.g. "orca")
#
# Security:
# allow-debugging = false|true ("false" by default)
# screensaver-timeout = Timeout (in seconds) until the screen blanks when the greeter is called as lockscreen
#
# Template for per-monitor configuration:
# [monitor: name]
# background = overrides default value
# user-background = overrides default value
# laptop = false|true ("false" by default) Marks monitor as laptop display
#
[greeter]
background=/usr/share/backgrounds/warty-final-ubuntu.png
theme-name=Ambiance
icon-theme-name=LoginIcons
font-name=Ubuntu 11
xft-antialias=true
xft-dpi=96
xft-hintstyle=slight
xft-rgba=rgb
show-indicators=~host;~spacer;~session;~language;~a11y;~clock;~power;
show-clock=true
clock-format=%d %b, %H:%M

*****

Now I want it to use /usr/share/bento/backgrounds/background.jpg (which is in my system) and use Clearlooks-Phenix theme (also in my system). So I will try to set it up ...

[Mélodie (meets)]

PS: I logged out, and the background is again entirely white. Please acknowledge that in previous tests I had done, I tried to setup another color in the GUI and it didn't change anything, the bg was still white.

PS2 : after installing the GUI tool it does not appear in lxpanel menus, but when modifying lightdm-gtk-greeter-settings.desktop to have "GTK;" at the end of the Categories line, it appears:
Categories=GNOME;Settings;System;Utility;X-XFCE-SettingsDialog;X-XFCE-SystemSettings;GTK;

instead of
Categories=GNOME;GTK;Settings;System;Utility;X-XFCE-SettingsDialog;X-XFCE-SystemSettings;

[Mélodie (meets)]

After that, I have restored the previous file and edited it by hand to have my image background, and the Clearlooks-Phenix theme. And I logged out: the back is still white, so I rebooted and after reboot… the background is still white! Just during the start of the session, the image I configured appears briefly, as in a splash.

[Mélodie (meets)]

Hi Andrew,

you changed the affected package, but this never happened when using manual methods to edit the lightdm-gtk-greeter.conf file. Are you sure you should have changed the package concerned by my bug report?

[Andrew P. (kalgasnik)]

https://bugs.launchpad.net/lightdm-gtk-greeter/+bug/1458330

It's bug in greeter, not in settings application.
There is a small regression due to 2.0.0 => 2.0.1 update. Greeter doesn't work correctly with some gtk themes. It will be fixed in next release.

As temporary workaround - edit this file:
/usr/share/themes/Clearlooks-Phenix/gtk-3.0/applications.css

Add following line at the end:
#screen.lightdm-gtk-greeter * { background: transparent; }

> after installing the GUI tool it does not appear in lxpanel menus
I'll check, but usually it located in "Preferences" submenu.

[Mélodie (meets)]

Hello Andrew,,

I am retrying now, I have edited the Clearlooks-Phenix CSS as you advised me. (Not logged out yet to see how it looks).
Have you checked about where the menu appears?

Also there are warnings about a gtk theme which is not in the repos anymore since a long time. While using it, it crashed so I started it from console to see if I could find a clue about the crash. Here are the warnings when started from console:

****
$ pkexec lightdm-gtk-greeter-settings

(lightdm-gtk-greeter-settings:4462): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: gtk-widgets.css:2:16: Theming engine 'adwaita' not found

(lightdm-gtk-greeter-settings:4462): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: gtk-widgets.css:62:15: Not using units is deprecated. Assuming 'px'.

(lightdm-gtk-greeter-settings:4462): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: gtk-widgets.css:62:17: Not using units is deprecated. Assuming 'px'.

(lightdm-gtk-greeter-settings:4462): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: gtk-widgets.css:909:16: Theming engine 'adwaita' not found

****

Thanks for your work!

[Andrew P. (kalgasnik)]

> Have you checked about where the menu appears?
Greeter application located in "System tools" submenu (by default).

> Also there are warnings about a gtk theme which is not in the repos anymore since a long time.
It's a big luck if theme for Gtk < 3.8 just looks not too ugly in latest Gtk version.

> While using it, it crashed
Settings application crashed? Or is it just looks ugly?

[Mélodie (meets)]

>>Also there are warnings about a gtk theme which is not in the repos anymore since a long time.
> It's a big luck if theme for Gtk < 3.8 just looks not too ugly in latest Gtk version.

No no, Adwaita does not exist, and there is a warning about it in may applications. Why aren' them apps aware about that?

Clearlooks-Phenix (actual) works fine.

> Settings application crashed? Or is it just looks ugly?

Crashed is crashed, not ugly. It shut down, disappeared from sight, had to restart it. (Probably not reproducible).

While I am here, thanks for your insight and advice, I can have my login screen nice and shiny again thanks to you. :)

[Andrew P. (kalgasnik)]

> No no, Adwaita does not exist, and there is a warning about it in may applications. Why aren' them apps aware about that?
Try to install "gnome-theme-standard" or/and "gnome-theme-standard-data" packages.

> Crashed is crashed, not ugly. It shut down, disappeared from sight, had to restart it. (Probably not reproducible).
1. "Crashed" means "select some specific theme in greeter settings application => crash".
or
2. This specific theme is your current gtk theme, and greeter application crashes when you start it (and it's ok with any other theme).

What is the name of this theme?

> I can have my login screen nice and shiny again thanks to you. :)
Glad to hear that.