kdm-readme.txt for the Debian theme proposal "The Journey". Written by: uhansen@debianart.org, 01.03.2012 -------------------------------- File: journey-kdm.tar.gz This archive contains the KDM configuration files of the Debian GNU/Linux theme. The content: /journey /journey/KdmGreeterTheme.desktop --- The info file for the theme /journey/boundingbox.png --- A background for the login window /journey/icon-reboot.png --- Symbol for reboot /journey/icon-session.png --- Symbol for the session menu /journey/journey.xml --- Configures the theme appearance /journey/screenshot.png --- Screenshot Important hint: This archive doesn't contain the background picture for the theme. This picture has to be downloaded separately and should be located in /usr/share/images/desktop-base/journey-login-background.jpg -------------------------------- Intended location in the filesystem: Open the archive tar -xzvf journey-kdm-theme.tar.gz Copy the folder "journey" to /usr/share/kde4/apps/kdm/themes/journey -------------------------------- Intended location in the desktop-base source package: Open the archive tar -xzvf journey-kdm-theme.tar.gz Copy the folder "journey" to /kdm-theme/journey CONFIGURATION: -------------- The background theme of the KDM login manager is set by Debian in: /etc/default/kdm.d/10_desktop-base (/kdm-theme/kdm.d/10_desktop-base in the source package) This file should have these lines: USETHEME="true" THEME="/usr/share/kde4/apps/kdm/themes/journey" WALLPAPER="/usr/share/images/desktop-base/journey-login-background.jpg" The first line activates the theme, the second points to the theme-folder and the third line sets the background. The theme folder contains all the contents of the KDM login-screen. The whole appearance is controled by the file: /usr/share/kde4/apps/kdm/themes/journey/journey.xml This file configures the position of the login-window, the font-sizes etc. A good explanation can be found here: http://docs.kde.org/development/en/kde-workspace/kdm/theme-format.html Most important is this line: The line sets the background picture and the scaling. Per default KDM uses the scalemode "free", which scales pictures freely. This may lead to distortions, especially when the picture contains circles or fonts. To avoid this, set the salemode to "fit". This centers the wallpaper, which means the original picture must be big enough. Another possibility is to set the scalemode to "crop". This enlarges the picture if necessary and crops it into the correct size. The "Journey" theme works best with the scalemode="crop".