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So I changed my background on my computer to an image I liked on the internet. However unlike on my laptop, the background image doesn't display for the login to my user account. Is there a way to fix this on 14.04?

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  • have you enabled home folder encryption? if so than your background image is not available until after you login.
    – Minos
    Oct 9, 2014 at 19:44
  • @Minos No I haven't done that. I didn't think it was necessary because on my laptop, the computer did it automatically. Is this something I can do from the system settings or do I have to mess with the terminal?
    – Msd1391
    Oct 9, 2014 at 20:52

5 Answers 5

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You can set it through var/lib/AccountsService/users/yourusername, under [User] section. I use this very same file to set a login background different from desktop.

Here's how mine looks like. Notice the Background= line

[com.canonical.indicator.sound.AccountsService]
PlayerName=''
Timestamp=0
Title=''
Artist=''
Album=''
ArtUrl=''
PlayerIcon=<('themed', <['application-default-icon', 'application-default', 'application']>)>

[User]
Language=en
FormatsLocale=en_US.UTF-8
XSession=gnome
Background=/usr/share/backgrounds/LOGIN-WARNING.png
Icon=/usr/share/pixmaps/faces/penguin.jpg
SystemAccount=false

[InputSource0]
ibus=pinyin

[InputSource1]
xkb=us

[InputSource2]
xkb=ru
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Install dconf-editor either via the Ubuntu Software Center or CLI.

In dconf-editor go to: com > canonical > unity > unity-greeter

and then make sure that the tick box draw-user-backgrounds is set to True.

image of dconf-editor and unity-greeter settings

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  • I tried it and it already had the box checked off.
    – Msd1391
    Oct 15, 2014 at 11:53
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Another reason for this could be wrong permissions on the image file and/or the folder it is inside. This has happened to me.

The permissions for folders should be 775(rwxrwxr-x) and for image files 664(rw-rw-r--).

For example, if you have:

./wallpapers/animals/cat_0.jpg

wallpapers and animals must have permissions 775 and cat_0.jpg - 664. You can set permissions using chmod:

chmod 775 [folder/file name]
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Follow these steps to configure your background image:

  1. If your wallpaper is in another partition, kindly copy it to your home folder - like inside the pictures folder.
  2. Right click on it and choose Properties then select the permissions tab. Set the permissions as:

owner - Read and Write
Group - Read and Write
Others - Read only

  1. Open up your wallpaper in Image Viewer (EOG) then right click and choose Set as Wallpaper

(At this stage you can try and logout and check if the image has appeared as the login background image). If not, continue - though there would be no harm in continuing all the same.

  1. Install Ubuntu Tweak
  2. Open up Ubuntu Tweak and choose the Tweaks tab then the Login Settings section - see screenshot below:

enter image description here

  1. Unlock the settings using your password - see screenshot below:

enter image description here

  1. Scroll down and press the Set the same background as the current desktop background button - see screenshot below:

enter image description here

  1. And that's it, the wallpaper has been set as the login background.

Here's my setup:

Desktop:

enter image description here

Login Screen:
https://askubuntu.com/a/607095/163331

enter image description here

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if all else fails convert the graphic to a different format.. in the the past there have been graphics that would display as the wallpaper while logged in but would not work for the login screen until the format was changed.. forget what the valid format was but sure that you can figure that one out with a little experimentation.

oh.. and forgot about this.. but if you use a separate desktop environment instead of unity then you must change the background wallpaper in unity because unity greeter does not care what background that you use in other desktop environments. for myself there is lxde so always have to remember to change my wallpaper in unity to the same as my background in lxde.

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