Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

It's quite strange,

Every time I use the 'MoveIcons' application to move desktop icons to the tray, the background image always becomes blurred.

My screen resolution is 1366x768, nothing special. And I only use one screen.

I've taken 2 screenshots to show what's going on:

I know about that, and don't know how to fix it.

When icons are on the desktop, ROX-Filer is rendering the wallpaper.
As specified in the "backdrop" tag here:
/root/Choices/ROX-Filer/PuppyPin

When icons are in the tray, JWM is rendering the wallpaper.
As specified in the "Background" tag here:
/root/.jwm/jwmrc-personal

You could experiment with the latter, see if it can be improved somehow.
The JWM configuration info is here:
https://joewing.net/projects/jwm/config.html

If you make a change, you will have to restart JWM:

# jwm -restart

Hi @SteveS :

Consider this not as the solution, but as an idea.
It happened to me when I started to use EasyOS, but now (I just tested and) it doesn't happen to me so...

... it is possible this error appears when using the default desktop because there are some problems with this image resolution or updates or.. or something like this?

It is possible you had tested with other wallpapers, but if not, do it and let us know, plz.

----------------

Does this problem continues when restarting?

After restarting X ?

............................

Have a nice day u all.

Hi @BarryK and @pp4mnklinux ,

Thanks for your answers.

So I did several tests with different-sized background images, jumping back and forth between 'Qwallpaper' and 'MoveIcons', and here is what I've found so far:

When moving desktop icons to the tray:
- For background images having dimensions larger than my current screen resolution, they are resized down and become blurred.
- For background images having dimensions smaller than my current screen resolution, they are resized up and remain clear.

It's as if downscaling systematically causes a kind of "lossy" compression, whereas upscaling does not involve any compression.

This behavior continues when restarting.

If other people want to do tests, don't hesitate!

Other little thing:

I've also noticed something else when running EasyOS in "Lockdown mode #1":
- After selecting a new background image in 'Qwallpaper' and having the new one on the desktop, moving desktop icons to the tray with 'MoveIcons' restores the previous background image.

SteveS wrote: Wed Jan 08, 2025 6:42 am

So I did several tests with different-sized background images, jumping back and forth between 'Qwallpaper' and 'MoveIcons', and here is what I've found so far:

When moving desktop icons to the tray:
- For background images having dimensions larger than my current screen resolution, they are resized down and become blurred.
- For background images having dimensions smaller than my current screen resolution, they are resized up and remain clear.

It's as if downscaling systematically causes a kind of "lossy" compression, whereas upscaling does not involve any compression.

This behavior continues when restarting.

If other people want to do tests, don't hesitate!

SteveS,
Thanks for doing that investigation!
Easy 6.5.4 is out, but I can plan on incorporating what you have discovered into the next release.

I'm still investigating, Barry!

In 2020, Ubuntu users also experienced the same downscaling issue as what I described above.
The article 'It’s Not Your Eyes: Why HQ Desktop Backgrounds Look Blurry on Ubuntu' https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2020/01/its ... -on-ubuntu said:

As Phoronix report, the inadvertent “blur issue” in question was the result of OpenGL downscaling wallpapers that were larger than the target desktop resolution.

So, if you always use a resolution-appropriate images that match your display, you won’t have been affected by this issue; everything will have looked hunky-dory.

But if you, like me, almost always download the highest resolution wallpaper you can find, even for use on a lesser resolution, you may well have scratched your head and squinted in confusion at compromised quality.

I had always assumed that the better quality image I used as a desktop background, the better quality I’d be staring at.

It’s rather weird that this hasn’t been the case!

And the Phoronix report in question 'GNOME Work Is Underway For Sharper Background Images' https://www.phoronix.com/news/GNOME-Sharper-Backgrounds said:

Long story short, for where the background/wallpaper image is larger than the desktop resolution, OpenGL is used for downscaling the image. But the existing means of downscaling could lead to blurry images or just not as sharp as possible images. But now with patches pending, the mipmap level is being limited to still downscale with OpenGL but to have the maximum sharpness possible for the display.

More details on this GNOME background improvement via this merge request: 'background: Limit mipmap levels to avoid loss of visible detail' https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/mutter/- ... uests/1003

Of course, in our case it certainly has nothing to do with OpenGL, but it's still interesting to read. And maybe it can help find some good inspiration.

I have commented about this problem on my blog:

https://bkhome.org/news/202501/partial- ... paper.html

OK, have reported this to Joe:

https://github.com/joewing/jwm/issues/647