Having fun with User icons

[oldfrt]

Sorry if this is documented someplace, if it is, I couldn't find it.

I thought it would be fun to change the icon for some of my users. The ones that come with PCLinuxOS are ok but something different would be nice. I also noticed that if I change one of the user's icons, the others also changed too, which was strange.

The first thing I did was try to find out where the user icons are located. After some searching, I found them at /usr/share/mdk/faces so if you go there you will find all the standard ones that we know and love, astronaut, baseball, butterfly, chess etc etc. They are all .png files. I also noticed that the icon pictures where duplicated and the name is changed from *.png to *.face.icon.

I took some ,png files and moved them to /usr/share/mdk/faces and then they appeared in the selectable area of the users id. To change a user icon, go to PCLinuxOS Control Center, System, manage users on system. Select the user you want to change and the Edit button. When the Edit Groups/Users screen appears, select the Account info tab. As you click on the icon it will cycle through the .png files from the faces directory. There is a GOTCHA here and I believe its a bug so maybe one of the whiz folks can comment. When you select an icon, the system will ADD a new icon and change the name as I mentioned above. What happens I believe, is that the pointers to the icons now get messed up and if you don't re-do every user then you will find that the other user icons have changed to something that you probably didn't want.

As an example, I have a user id that I use for mail so I changed that user icon to a mailbox. On the log in screen it looks pretty neat. I also have a test system with a test id so I changed that user icon to Tux with a wrench.

I also found in Configure your Desktop, System Administration, Login Screen, under the user's tab, on the right hand side, there is an item called 'User Images'. I played around with the various images but it did not seem to do anything. If you click on the box there is a different set of user icons than the ones from the faces directory. Does anyone know what those images are for and if you change them what is supposed to happen??

Just having some fun, hope you enjoy... Ron

[Just17]

Config your Desktop - Common appearance & Behaviour - Account Details ....  Password & User Account .......  change the icon there 

A different set of icons are shown here than those you mentioned in your post.

It might appear that there are at least two different systems influencing the same thing .......  settings through PCC and setting through KDE-CC

If that is true then it is no wonder there might be conflicts and unusual results.

I haven't played with this for a few years so cannot really comment ....  except to say that in PCC User there is one icon and in KDE there is another .......  and the KDE one is displayed at login selection screen.

[oldfrt]

Now that's interesting. So it appears that there are really 2 different ways to invoke User icons, either KDE or PCLinuxOS. Can anyone explain how to use the KDE icons?? From my experimenting, they have no affect on what I see on my login screen. I have always used PCC to set up User's, no idea how to set them up using KDE.
Ron

[plankton172]

Config your Desktop - Common appearance & Behaviour - Account Details ....  Password & User Account .......  change the icon there 

A different set of icons are shown here than those you mentioned in your post.

It might appear that there are at least two different systems influencing the same thing .......  settings through PCC and setting through KDE-CC

If that is true then it is no wonder there might be conflicts and unusual results.

I haven't played with this for a few years so cannot really comment ....  except to say that in PCC User there is one icon and in KDE there is another .......  and the KDE one is displayed at login selection screen.

Hello....

Just want to say I tried to do the above (in bold font), but I encountered the error messages:

Code: [Select]

Could not find plugin 'Password & User Account' for application 'systemsettings'Library "kcm_useraccount" not found.

Possible reasons:
- An error occurred during your last KDE upgrade leaving an orphaned control module
- You have old third party modules lying around

Check these points carefully and try to remove the module mentioned in the error message. If this fails, consider contacting your distributor or packager.
Appreciate any help.

Thanks.

[KernelKarter]

This may help: http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,108218.msg924843.html#msg924843

-- Eddie

[plankton172]

This may help: http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,108218.msg924843.html#msg924843

-- Eddie

That did it!  Thanks!

[ternor]

I have the package mentioned there installed.  I see this description in Synaptic:

kde-baseapps kdepasswd
kde-baseapps kdepasswd
KDEbase Change Password package has been depreciated.
Please use the PCLinuxOS Control Center -> Manage
Users to change passwords and user face icon.

[KernelKarter]

The fact that the package has been deprecated doesn't mean to say that we shouldn't use it and, as @Just17 stated, there are two different sets of user face icons to choose from. Depending on which set the user prefers, depends on where the user would go to choose their user face icon.

-- Eddie