7

I installed Ubuntu Studio 15.10 and upon that:

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop

Now on the login screen, I have the default brownish Ubuntu default background.

  • I tried this as root:

    sudo xhost +SI:localuser:lightdm
    sudo su lightdm -s /bin/bash
    gsettings set com.canonical.unity-greeter background /usr/share/backgrounds/Tranquil_by_Pat_David.jpg
    

    But this didn't change anything.

  • Also starting the unity-control-center as user lightdm and changing the background there had no effect.

  • I also checked the rights of /usr/share/backgrounds/Tranquil_by_Pat_David.jpg which are globally readable.

4
  • This is a Duplicate
    – T04435
    Nov 5, 2015 at 10:45
  • 2
    It is not a duplicate, I tried everything in that question
    – rubo77
    Nov 5, 2015 at 11:01
  • 1
    Maybe a bit duplicate indeed, cause the answer was in one of the low voted answers: askubuntu.com/a/360008/34298
    – rubo77
    Nov 5, 2015 at 11:08
  • I've updated my answer, please refer Nov 18, 2015 at 4:41

4 Answers 4

23

The proper way of changing default unity-greeter background is through overriding glib-2.0 schema, as specified in the Lightdm Ubuntu Wiki

The steps are as follows:

  1. Create /usr/share/glib-2.0/schemas/10_unity_greeter_background.gschema.override file with the following contents:

    [com.canonical.unity-greeter]
    draw-user-backgrounds=false
    background='/foo/wallpaper.png'
    
  2. Run sudo glib-compile-schemas /usr/share/glib-2.0/schemas

  3. Reboot or login to TTY2 (accessed by pressing Ctrl+Alt+F2 ) and run sudo service lightdm restart

This has been tested on my Ubuntu 14.04

Update: November 17 2015

I have put together a script that simplifies the process of changing the greeter background. It has been tested in its final form on two versions of Ubuntu, 14.04 LTS (actual physical machine ) and 15.10 (Virtual Machine ) It can be found in my GitHub

9
  • Thanks for your script! It, however, produces this error when running.
    – orschiro
    Oct 6, 2016 at 6:21
  • 1
    @orschiro you have to call script with path to file. For example, sudo ./chgreeterbg.sh /home/user/Picture s/wallpaper1.png Oct 6, 2016 at 6:31
  • That works, thanks! Maybe you want to add this to your answer?
    – orschiro
    Oct 6, 2016 at 7:10
  • After running your script and rebooting, my font settings have changed. Do you know how I can restore them?
    – orschiro
    Oct 6, 2016 at 7:20
  • 2
    This also works for Ubuntu 16.04. Be careful about typos - I had a typo in the schema name within the .gschema.override file, which is the part between the brackets [ ], and as a result it was not properly loading. Once I fixed that I had the correct background.
    – jropella
    May 9, 2017 at 8:49
4

It seems like all the gsettings have no effect in Ubuntu 15.10, (maybe because I installed Ubuntu Studio with xfce4 first).

I solved it by adding this line to /etc/lightdm/lightdm-gtk-greeter.conf:

background=/usr/share/backgrounds/Tranquil_by_Pat_David.jpg

or in one sudo command:

sudo su -c 'echo "background=/usr/share/backgrounds/Tranquil_by_Pat_David.jpg">>/etc/lightdm/lightdm-gtk-greeter.conf'
0

The non coder way is to use Ubuntu Tweak. Still available per the method listed in this answer.

0

Shotwell

For just the basic wallpaper changing feature, you don’t need to install any software, just shotwell.

Just launch the pre-installed Shotwell photo manager, choose the pictures you need (you may need to import them first), then go to Files -> Set as Desktop Slideshow. Click "on lockscreen".

Finally set the time interval in next dialog as desired and done!

source: http://ubuntuhandbook.org/index.php/2018/07/4-wallpaper-changer-ubuntu-18-04/

Note: This does not work for the login screen any more in Ubuntu 19.04, but still for the dektop background.

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