How To Change the Login Screen Background

[ramjet_1953]

Change Login Screen Background
in Ubuntu 10.04 LTS

At the graphical login screen you need to change to the TTY login screen. To do this enter

CNTL+ALT+F1

Login with your usual login name and password.

Enter the following two commands:

export DISPLAY=:0.0

sudo -u gdm gnome-control-center

(you will be prompted for your password).

Return to the graphical login screen. To do this enter

CNTL+ALT+F7

The graphical login screen will appear, superimposed by the gnome-control-center.

Choose Appearance>Background
Choose the background you wish and then close.

Your login screen will now have the background you have chosen.

If the standard backgrounds are not to your liking, just place the image of your choice into the directory /usr/share/backgrounds

To do this open a root file browser by typing into a terminal

gksu nautilis

You will be prompted for your password.

Once the root file browser opens, just copy the image of your choice to /usr/share/backgrounds

Enjoy!!

[jtarin]

Good commandline practice and hints on screen switching.
Optionally you can install ubuntu-tweak and accomplish this, as well as change your host picture among other many ubuntu tweaks.

[kerry_s]

i just do this:

gksudo -u gdm dbus-launch gnome-appearance-properties

[jtarin]

i just do this:

gksudo -u gdm dbus-launch gnome-appearance-properties

Really? Could you walk me through that so I can change my login screen so easily? Is it possible your thinking of the desktop background? Maybe I'm the one that is confused.

[kerry_s]

Really? Could you walk me through that so I can change my login screen so easily? Is it possible your thinking of the desktop background? Maybe I'm the one that is confused.

it's just like changing the desktop, but what ever you change there happens on the login. you can do the theme, background, mouse, fonts.

if accessibility gets turned on you can turn it back off in
preferences-> keyboard

i only changed my mouse pointer & the background, to match what i'm using on the desktop.

[jtarin]

it's just like changing the desktop, but what ever you change there happens on the login. you can do the theme, background, mouse, fonts.

if accessibility gets turned on you can turn it back off in
preferences-> keyboard

i only changed my mouse pointer & the background, to match what i'm using on the desktop.

I gotcha now.....I was understanding that you could do both simultaneously. Such is not the case though.Good to know.

[philinux]

There's is a gui for this if anyone interested.

http://www.ubuntugeek.com/gdm2-setup...e-new-gdm.html

[warfacegod]

There's is a gui for this if anyone interested.

http://www.ubuntugeek.com/gdm2-setup...e-new-gdm.html

Great tool. I use it in 9.10. Unfortunately the last time I used it in Lucid (several weeks ago) it was still refusing to see any images that were added to the backgrounds folder.

With some minor work, this will be an excellent tool. I'd like to see it install by default in future releases replacing the current "Login Screen Settings", sorry thing that it has become.

[blackaardvark]

There's is a gui for this if anyone interested.

http://www.ubuntugeek.com/gdm2-setup...e-new-gdm.html

Just tried this, and it's not working on Lucid as far as I can see. This is pretty frustrating, I thought it would be pretty simple changing the log-in screen, but apparently not!

Can someone please shed some light on why this is so stonkingly difficult compared to other releases?

[warfacegod]

It's partly due to the images locations being hard coded. That's what I have read anyway.

If gdm2 didn't work for you, try Ubuntu Tweak. You can change the background with that.