changing resoluton does not update wallpaper. "at startup" changes wallpaper unprompted. Backdrop playback only tracks in-focus window.

Hello, recently a very nice QOL feature was added to xfce: video-backdrop for wallpaper.

Merge request for the same: 90a6ae3e

I have been daily driving this exact commit of xfdesktop and have noticed some anomalies. I would like to report the same.

Issue Description

I have encountered a total of three problems in the build. two of these are non-serious bugs, the third is annoying.

  1. Wallpaper does not resize to the screen on changing resolutions
    1. On previous versions of xfdesktop, the stable version package by debian, the desktop wallpaper used to resize to the current resolution after resolution had been changed.
  2. Wallpaper changes once after roughly 2 seconds on using change background mode "at startup"
  3. Video backdrop only tracks current active window's fullscreen state.
    1. The support for pausing playback was added in the commit, problem is it tracks the current active window.
    2. If I have a fullscreen window open, and a floating window over it in focus, the background playback for video-backdrop resumes.
    3. Playback stops only when i either: A) switch focus to the fullscreen window or B) maximize the floating window that is in focus.

Steps to Reproduce Issue

  1. Wallpaper does not resize to the window on changing resolutions

    1. Use any video/image as wallpaper
    2. Set style of wallpaper as any (centered, tiled, stretched, zoomed or scaled]
    3. Bug appears in all cases
    4. Change resolution after setting wallpaper.
    5. The wallpaper will be anchored to the top left and will be cropped / fill with black.
    6. What I mean is, if upscaled to a higher pixel count, the "newer" pixel will be filled with black.
    7. If downscaled to a lower pixel count, the wallpaper will maintain the original size and crop to file. Still anchored to the top left.
    8. Images of bug:
      1. Orignal 1280x720: https://files.catbox.moe/pio24o.jpg https://files.catbox.moe/5eoutr.jpg
      2. (Blackening) Changed to 1920x1080: https://files.catbox.moe/dwz2xb.jpg
      3. (Cropping) Changed to 640x480: https://files.catbox.moe/nqddam.jpg
    9. IF multiple images in wallpaper folder, do right click > Next Background
    10. On doing next background, the next image appears in correct place and size.
    11. On computer restart / logout and login, the wallpaper starts at correct size.

  2. Wallpaper changes once after roughly 2 seconds on using change background mode "at startup"

    1. Use any resolution.
    2. Set wallpaper folder to something with multiple images.
    3. Turn on change wallpaper.
    4. Select change mode to "at startup"
    5. Wait 1 second.
    6. Wallpaper should automatically be changed without doing right click > next background. This happens only ONCE after selecting "at startup".
    7. Select any other change mode.
    8. Select "at startup"
    9. Wait 1 second, wallpaper changes automatically again. Once only, not more than once.

  3. Video backdrop only tracks current active window's fullscreen state.

    1. Set a video-backdrop.
    2. Open any application and maximize it to fill screen.
    3. Open another application, and make it a floating window.
    4. Monitor playback in task manager, playback should start, xfdesktop starts CPU usage.
    5. Switch focus to fullscreen window.
    6. Playback stops.
    7. Without changing state of fullscreen window (no minimizing or moving window around), switch focus to floating window.
    8. Playback resumes.
    9. It seems xfdesktop is only tracking the current window's state.

Expected Behavior

  1. Resizing bug:
    1. The wallpaper should resize to the current resolution.
  2. One time wallpaper change with "at startup" mode:
    1. No change in wallpaper should occur on switching to this mode alone.
  3. Video backdrop working according to current window:
    1. Backdrop should be paused even if a single window is maximised in current workspace, rather than only tracking in-focus window.

Additional Information

Workarounds I am employing right now:

  1. I don't use the "at startup" mode.
  2. If I switch resolutions, I do "Next Background: " once.
  3. I am not using a video as my backdrop. Currently I am using a static image.

Environment & Versions

  • OS distribution and version: Debian 13 Trixie amd64
  • Overall Xfce version: xfce4/stable,stable,now 4.20.1 all [Packged by debian]
  • xfdesktop version (git hash if not a release):xfdesktop version 4.20.1-dev- 90a6ae3e, running on Xfce 4.20
  • thunar version (if issue related to file/launcher icons): No issues but 4.20.2
  • Windowing system (X11/Wayland): X11
  • Compositor and version (if Wayland): X11, xfwm4
  • GTK Theme: McOS-XFCE-Edition-II-1 [changes gtk3, gtk2, xfwm4, xfce4-notifyd]
  • Icon Theme: GNOME [Default Provided icon set in debian xfce]
  • UI Scale Factor: 1
  • DPI: unchanged default 95

Extra notes:

To compile and use xfdesktop from scratch, I had to also compile the following packages:

libxfce4ui

libxfce4windowing

xfdektop itself

Current items in /usr/local/bin:

aashu@debian:/usr/local/bin$ ls iriunwebcam xfce4-about xfce-open xfdesktop-settings ryzenadj xfce-desktop-item-edit xfdesktop Xrain