I just tracked this one down myself. I figured out how to change the startup splash graphics, by creating files in

~/.kde/share/apps/ksplash/pics

...that worked just fine. But the background color is still boring. I tracked down startkde, and it tries to run xsetroot -solid #232323 to change the background root window color. But it just doesn't seem to work!

I tried it just from a terminal window, and it doesn't work there either. (Note you'll need to use \# in the shell, to escape the hash character).

Basically, it just don't do anything. Runs fine, no errors, but...

I'll keep scratching... but does anybody have any clues?

J.

You're going to get a grey (between black and white) color if all your RGB values are the same. The values will go from black (000000) to white (FFFFFF), but will be grey in between. The 232323 triplet works for me, though it's rather black. It works for me in both the startkde script, and in a terminal window to change the background.

Yep, I just put in random numbers, I know that's dark grey!

But no colour works for me. I just see my background image.

Even if I swap my desktop to be a plain colour, I see no change when I run xsetroot. Very strange.

I'm running KDE, under RH 9.0

J.

=-}
Very strange indeed. I normally have an image in the background, but xsetroot changes it to whatever when I run the command. However, I don't run KDE.
I started up KDE, and it looks like KDE ignores the xset command. It's probably ignoring a lot of X directives that it maybe shouldn't . . .
One of the many reasons I stick with my ancient window manager. . .
=-}

You can change the background in KDE by using the "configure desktop" option in the menu you get when you right click on the empty desktop. . .

Yep.

Changing background is easy. The question is how to set the background which runs behind ksplash when startkde executes it.

That also changes when I run xsetroot in the startkde script. Mind you, it's only up there for a short time before KDE covers it up, but it does change. . .

Ah...

Works for me when I note that XDM_MANAGED is actually set, and
so I need to explicitly set $bkg.

Yep, I see it change too. Although it does flicker blue first, before it
turns my selected color. Still, that's a question for another day.

Looks like KDE overpaints the root window with its own root, hence
xsetroot no longer works after KDE has started.