[dasos]

Hey All!

First off thanks you to find folks who run this site and the members that conribute. Seems like its getting harder and harder to find groups for these awesome machines.

So my questions is as states. I know the backgrounds use raw bitmaps (I think?) but wondering if there is a way / process to convert a standard JPG etc to be used for a background with Magic Desktop.

Thanks!

[dexter1]

This is a FAQ but we do not seem to have a page over here with IRIX FAQs clarified. I have found this page which explains the modifications in the desktop background file:
<URL url="http://rainbow.ldeo.columbia.edu/documentation/sgi-faq/graphics/14.html"><LINK_TEXT text="http://rainbow.ldeo.columbia.edu/docume ... cs/14.html">http://rainbow.ldeo.columbia.edu/documentation/sgi-faq/graphics/14.html</LINK_TEXT>
The second entry from Joe Madison is the one to follow

[dasos]

Thanks dexter1, however, that binary does not seem to be present on my install. Anyone else have any ideas?

[dexter1]

I've reinstalled my O2 today and i've looked up my .backgrounds file. Sure enough, it differs form the previous examples in the link:

Code:

background "Motoko"
   default "-xpm /home/frank/Pictures/motokopen.xpm"

background "Poly10"
   default "-xpm /home/frank/Pictures/poly10.xpm"

andsoforth...

So you only need to change the background image in xpm format and put the image in a folder on your home drive, then note the location and make the .backgrounds file refer to it.

[dasos]

Ah, no problem thanks for your help :) But, I hate to bother, but trying to covert JPG to XPM is proving to be hard. Any suggestions?

[CB_HK]

A cursory Google search had a couple of online converters pop up (not sure if you’ve tried any of them already). No telling if they’re useful but perhaps one or two will work well. I’d give it a shot just to try it myself but I’m away from my desktop at the moment.

In fact, I likely will give it a shot as I’d like to try converting a few things over.

[TruHobbyist]

<QUOTE author="dasos" post_id="2859" time="1535250681" user_id="335">

Ah, no problem thanks for your help :) But, I hate to bother, but trying to covert JPG to XPM is proving to be hard. Any suggestions?

You can try Gimp 2.4.6 from nekoware, it supports both JPG and XPM. That should do the trick without giving your precious data to greedy online conversion sites!

Tru

[Trippynet]

What version of IRIX are you running? 6.5.22 and later support using standard JPGs for the background images.

[dasos]

A cursory Google search had a couple of online converters pop up (not sure if you’ve tried any of them already). No telling if they’re useful but perhaps one or two will work well. I’d give it a shot just to try it myself but I’m away from my desktop at the moment.

In fact, I likely will give it a shot as I’d like to try converting a few things over.

Yeah, I tried three none seemed to work. But ya can't always trust those hehe

---

<QUOTE author="dasos" post_id="2859" time="1535250681" user_id="335">

Ah, no problem thanks for your help But, I hate to bother, but trying to covert JPG to XPM is proving to be hard. Any suggestions?

You can try Gimp 2.4.6 from nekoware, it supports both JPG and XPM. That should do the trick without giving your precious data to greedy online conversion sites!

Tru

Good to know, I'll look at getting that install. GIMP is always useful to have.

---

What version of IRIX are you running? 6.5.22 and later support using standard JPGs for the background images.

Oh it does? Yea, im running 6.5.22, is the config string like the other or is it different?

[Trippynet]

---

Oh it does? Yea, im running 6.5.22, is the config string like the other or is it different?

Syntax is:

Code:

background "[display name]"
default "-image [filename with path]"

There was also a script someone had written (forget who) to populate the backgrounds file.

Copy the following to a shell script, save it and make it executable:

Code:

#!/bin/sh
BGDIR=$HOME/Backgrounds
#cp /usr/lib/X11/system.backgrounds $HOME/.backgrounds
chmod 644 $HOME/.backgrounds
cd ${BGDIR}
for x in *.jpg *.xpm *.png *.bmp; do
case ${x} in
'*.jpg'|'*.xpm'|'*.png'|'*.bmp') ;;
*)
NAME=`echo ${x} | tr '.' ' ' | awk '{print $1}' | tr '_' ' '`
echo "" >> $HOME/.backgrounds
echo "background \""${NAME}"\"" >> $HOME/.backgrounds
echo "default \""-image ${BGDIR}/${x}"\"" >> $HOME/.backgrounds
;;
esac
done

Copy your images into ~\Backgrounds, run the script and it will populate the .backgrounds file with all the images.