Change User Picture in Zorin Menu - Zorin 9

I am trying to change the user picture in the Zorin Menu using the workaround found for Zorin 8 here:http://www.zoringroup.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=4636

I've found a work-around for this. It seems that when you install the OS, and you have a webcam with your PC, you can make a foto of yourself that is then used as the picture shown in that menu. The installer creates a file with the name ".face" in your user account's root directory.
I then played around with that file, deleted it, then took another picture file with a ".png" extension, copied it to the user's root folder, and gave it the name ".face". After that this picture was displayed in the Zorin menu.

The .face file has worked for me also on a PC where I didn't add a picture during the installation. I tried it with both, a jpg an png file, it worked for both formats. But remember, it needs to be in the user's root folder (/home/username/), and it doesn't appear immediately. You either have logoff and then back on, reboot, or refresh the menu via right click, preferences, then OK...

My problem is (unless there is a new way to do this) I do not have a folder with my username in the Home folder. Do I need to be at Root to un-hide this folder or is it under a different directory?

( I'm actually gonna use a neato Zorin icon for my picture )

Edit: Btw, I did try this method seen in help and support just below this post Here viewtopic.php?f=5&t=7883

but the fellow says to place your Whatever.face file in the Home directory which does not work for me, even after logging off and back on or restartting the Zorin Menu from Preferances. The image was a PNG I renamed with the .face extention.

FYI also, i tried to take a picture from my webcam via the Take a Photo from the the pictures selection area but even though Cheese works properly this app does not work with my camera - i get the big round circle with the line through it indicating there is a problem. This may be a bug..

Hi ElectricRider , you need is insure the file is small enough, the file I use is 526 x 526 pixels. is a jpg (can also be bmp,png,...) and it needs to be named ( .face ) only not (????.face)
so the path to the file would be /home/(username)/.face or ~/.face

hope that helps

Hi, jonas99 - have you got it to work in Zorin 9 yourself? If not then the only way round it would be to install GnoMenu per these instructions:

http://www.upubuntu.com/2012/03/how-to- ... unity.html

Then right-click the panel at the Bottom, select 'Dock Preferences' then go to Applets Tab - find the 'GnoMenu' applet and drag to the left of where the ZorinMenu is, then select the ZorinMenu icon and drag it back to the applets window leaving the GnoMenu icon in place - now try double-clicking on the menu icon and point it to the '.face' you want to be there!

Swarfendor437 - I know you just got your Zorin 9 installed.. do you mean to say that method didn't work for you either?

( though I also know you installed Gnomenu so you prpobaly didn't try that method LOL)

The file is named "zorin logo.face" and the file's size is only 1.9 kb. The files dimentions are 78x90 pixels. It's in the Home directory.. like I said, I have no directory under Home with my username as a folder name. i wonder now if the space in the file's name is effecting it...

Edit: I renamed the file to Zorin.face and restarted the menu but it had no effect. I was thinking about trying Gnomenu anyway because you can get a really neat Windows 7 theme for it so I may try that next.. but i'd still like to know if it can be made to work with the Zorin Menu because others will read this post and it may help them out.

Yes It works for me fine. file name is .face and located in the root of home directory. pic is a snap of my dog and is a 59kb jpg file off my phone (526 x526 pixels).
Zorin 6 ultimate on my my desktop and Zorin 9 core on my laptop both 64 bit. Both working fine.

make sure file name is .face not filename.face

jonas99 wrote:make sure file name is .face not filename.face

Ya know.. you did state that already but i didn't understand it - The reason being with other systems I am used to like Windows, you cannot name a file with just a blank filename. I was almost sure you had mispoke - until I tried it LOL You are correct I renamed the file to just ".face" and it works fine. So lesson learned, in Linux you can (at least for this occation) have a filename that is only a "dot extention" without having to actually give a name to that file. This info may help others coming from Windows who may be confused like I was.

Thank you both so much !! I'll mark this as Solved.

Hi, Glad to know it is working - I have been having major issues with editing the menu (Win 7) even with 'alacarte' installed - which is why I am now using Gnome but will need to blitz the install to finish my install alongside Win 7 video!

We have provided a fix for the user image and menu editing issues as a software update to Zorin OS. In order to install this bug fix please open Start > search & open "Software Updater" and install the latest updates.

Hey AZorin, there may be a problem with your fix above. I updated the software to play with the new feature and so I removed my custom picture (the zorin icon image i used above) via the new Remove Customized Icon setting (found in right click Zorin Menu) and changed it to the tennis ball. I then sought to change it back via the Browse for more pictures tool and noticed two things..

First the icon is not the correct size it should be. When selecting the image I can enlarge the box to expand the boundaries of the image but it does not expand the boundaries enough to fit the whole image. Back when the picture was just a .face file, the image showed correctly and filled the little box when you view it from the Zorin Menu. Now that same file cannot fit in the the little box... in other words it makes my custom picture which is 78x90 pixels way to large that the select boundaries tool cannot encase the whole image.

Here is a picture with the boundary box fully expanded and you can see the sides of the image are cut off. http://imgbox.com/8EgcLHQX

This is how the picture should look http://imgbox.com/yk69o0pN

Second, Any file named .face in the Home folder is now hidden. I know this because when the file didn't show the correct size, I tried to change it back using the old method above.. (by renaming another file .face and placing it in the Home folder) I got the message that said it cannot place the .face file in the folder because there were already a .face file there. ( tried it 3 times, so now I have an invisible .face file in my home folder and one in my downloads folder and one in my documents folder that I cannot access.) I was able to see my .face file before. I can rename any file to .face and it stays just until I get out of that folder. On going back to that folder the file is gone ie invisible.

Hi, open Nautilus, go to View and select - show hidden files - if this is checkmarked they will show up permanently - temporarily just use 'Ctrl+ H'

ElectricRider I can confirm the last update corrected the issue. when I now change the pic in user account the pic changes in the menu. but make sure you unlock the profile first. Also I did not have to delete .face first



The boundry box is resizeable just click and drag the edges to the size you need.

That worked to show the files.. Thanks.. i didn't think that would do it since it was something about that update that caused the files to be hidden when they were not before.

So again i tried the work around to get the .face file to show correctly in the Zorin Menu and it's still not working.. seems the workaround wont work at all now - and as in my picture above shows, the proper way to do it still doesn't allow the whole image to be shown. Is there a way to fix this? ( is it a bug due to the update?)

Hi, I will look at this tonight if poss - first to back up all my downloads and wallpapers from Love Wallpaper HD via Ubuntu Tweak!

jonas99 wrote:The boundry box is resizeable just click and drag the edges to the size you need.

Thats exactly what i did do but I cannot resize it enough to capture the whole image.. it's still cutting off the sides as in my picture above.

Thanks for trying guys.. I don't mean to be a pest about this.. just trying to help incase it is a real issue that would effect everyone.

Some good information for all who care to read it.

Linux doesn't use file extensions for the most part (there are some programs in linux that do, but in terminal you will always be able to determine the type of file without having a file extension).

The linux naming scheme is really simple.
a file name that starts with a ".' is hidden
and everything else is not, you can not have a filename of either "." or ".." as these are used for current directory and parent directory.

if you want to see what kinda file a file is open terminal and run this.

Code:

file <filename>

eg

Code:

[user@server 64bit]$ ls
zorin-os-4-core-64.iso      zorin-os-6-core-64.iso      zorin-os-7-ultimate-64.iso    zorin-os-9-core-64.iso
zorin-os-4-ultimate-64.iso  zorin-os-6-ultimate-64.iso  zorin-os-8.1-core-64.iso      zorin-os-9-ultimate-64.iso
zorin-os-5-ultimate-64.iso  zorin-os-7-core-64.iso      zorin-os-8.1-ultimate-64.iso
[user@server 64bit]$ file zorin-os-9-ultimate-64.iso
zorin-os-9-ultimate-64.iso: ISO 9660 CD-ROM filesystem data 'Zorin OS 9 Ultimate 64 bit     ' (bootable)
[user@server 64bit]$ mv zorin-os-9-ultimate-64.iso zorin-os-9-ultimate-64
[user@server 64bit]$ ls
zorin-os-4-core-64.iso      zorin-os-6-core-64.iso      zorin-os-7-ultimate-64.iso    zorin-os-9-core-64.iso
zorin-os-4-ultimate-64.iso  zorin-os-6-ultimate-64.iso  zorin-os-8.1-core-64.iso      zorin-os-9-ultimate-64
zorin-os-5-ultimate-64.iso  zorin-os-7-core-64.iso      zorin-os-8.1-ultimate-64.iso
[user@server 64bit]$ file zorin-os-9-ultimate-64
zorin-os-9-ultimate-64: ISO 9660 CD-ROM filesystem data 'Zorin OS 9 Ultimate 64 bit     ' (bootable)
[user@server 64bit]$ mv zorin-os-9-ultimate-64 .zorin-os-9-ultimate-64
[user@server 64bit]$ ls
zorin-os-4-core-64.iso      zorin-os-6-core-64.iso      zorin-os-7-ultimate-64.iso    zorin-os-9-core-64.iso
zorin-os-4-ultimate-64.iso  zorin-os-6-ultimate-64.iso  zorin-os-8.1-core-64.iso
zorin-os-5-ultimate-64.iso  zorin-os-7-core-64.iso      zorin-os-8.1-ultimate-64.iso
[user@server 64bit]$ ls -a
.                           zorin-os-5-ultimate-64.iso  zorin-os-7-ultimate-64.iso    .zorin-os-9-ultimate-64
..                          zorin-os-6-core-64.iso      zorin-os-8.1-core-64.iso
zorin-os-4-core-64.iso      zorin-os-6-ultimate-64.iso  zorin-os-8.1-ultimate-64.iso
zorin-os-4-ultimate-64.iso  zorin-os-7-core-64.iso      zorin-os-9-core-64.iso
[user@server 64bit]$ file .zorin-os-9-ultimate-64
.zorin-os-9-ultimate-64: ISO 9660 CD-ROM filesystem data 'Zorin OS 9 Ultimate 64 bit     ' (bootable)
[user@server 64bit]$ mv .zorin-os-9-ultimate-64 zorin-os-9-ultimate-64.iso
[user@server 64bit]$


as a quick example. even when I removed the "file extension" I was still able to determine what kinda file the ISO image is.
So in your example. you aren't nameing something with a .face extension you and hiding a file named "face".

P.S. most UI file browsers use file extensions to determine which icon should be displayed for the file, and thus a file without an extension will become a generic "file" icon.