How Do I change the GDM theme and splash screen

[jaco223]

How can I go about setting GDM to allow root logins? I've tried setting root passwd from
a terminal which seems the same as sudo passwd.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Jaco

P.S. I want to login as root to find a way to change the GDM theme and splash screen.

[J V]

You can't do that on karmic... but I'm sure you can do it with gk/sudo if you find a workaround.

Please try using sudo to make a workaround, gksudo nautilus and sudo bash will give you basicly full root control over the file manager, the terminal, and any programs started from either. (Dangerous! Make sure you shut them down when you're done!)

[nerdy_kid]

i think it is against forum policy to unlock the root account....

[edit]
to change the theme and background ive heard that

sudo -u gdm gnome-appearance

will do it.

if gnome-appearance doesnt work just find the name of the app that switches the theme/wallpapers for your desktop -- i use KDE so i cant get it.

[philinux]

i think it is against forum policy to unlock the root account....

It is. I've amended the thread title to reflect the correct support query.

Using sudo or gksudo is the correct method.

http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/security
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RootSudo

[undecim]

Logging in as root won't allow you to change the GDM background. Also, setting a root password is a security problem.

If you want to change the background, try pressing ALT+F2 and pasting this command:

gksudo -u gdm gnome-appearance-properties

Then change the background there. (NOTE: since you are running this as the GDM user, you won't be able to see the contents of your home directory. If you have an image in your home directory you want to use, you will have to put it in /var/gdm and make sure that the owner is gdm. You can do all this from a file manager if you run it by pressing ALT+F2 and type "gksudo nautilus")

[jaco223]

Logging in as root won't allow you to change the GDM background. Also, setting a root password is a security problem.

If you want to change the background, try pressing ALT+F2 and pasting this command:

gksudo -u gdm gnome-appearance-properties

Then change the background there. (NOTE: since you are running this as the GDM user, you won't be able to see the contents of your home directory. If you have an image in your home directory you want to use, you will have to put it in /var/gdm and make sure that the owner is gdm. You can do all this from a file manager if you run it by pressing ALT+F2 and type "gksudo nautilus")

Undecim, I don't think it will be so easy to change my gdm theme. I tried to go to /var/gdm, but there is not a directory with that name. I then tried the appear-properties, but it looks like that is just to change the background and theme of my desktop. I also tried gksudo nautilus, but find nothing associated with gdm.

I did whereis gdm and got back /etc/gdm /usr/lib/gdm and /usr/share/gdm.
I don't see any images or themes in any of those directories.

I don't know where to go from here.

Jaco

P.S. Philinux I apologize for posting to unlock root, I didn't know that was illegal.

[mcduck]

Undecim, I don't think it will be so easy to change my gdm theme. I tried to go to /var/gdm, but there is not a directory with that name. I then tried the appear-properties, but it looks like that is just to change the background and theme of my desktop. I also tried gksudo nautilus, but find nothing associated with gdm.

I did whereis gdm and got back /etc/gdm /usr/lib/gdm and /usr/share/gdm.
I don't see any images or themes in any of those directories.

I don't know where to go from here.

Jaco

P.S. Philinux I apologize for posting to unlock root, I didn't know that was illegal.

Changing the GDM theme in 9.04 and later works exactly as Undecim suggested. Running that command opens the Appearance dialog as user "gdm", and that allows you to set the wallpaper, theme & fonts for the GDM login screen.

That's as much theming as you'll get, the GDM version used in 9.04 and later doesn't support the old style themes any longer.

[jaco223]

Changing the GDM theme in 9.04 and later works exactly as Undecim suggested. Running that command opens the Appearance dialog as user "gdm", and that allows you to set the wallpaper, theme & fonts for the GDM login screen.

That's as much theming as you'll get, the GDM version used in 9.04 and later doesn't support the old style themes any longer.

Mcduck, I'm a little confused here. I ran the command Undecim provided, and it opens the appearance settings window, but I don't see a way to get the theme I want to use in there. I apologize for my lack of knowledge. I downloaded a theme from gnome look and want to use it, are you saying I can't install a theme for gdm?

Jaco

[mcduck]

Mcduck, I'm a little confused here. I ran the command Undecim provided, and it opens the appearance settings window, but I don't see a way to get the theme I want to use in there. I apologize for my lack of knowledge. I downloaded a theme from gnome look and want to use it, are you saying I can't install a theme for gdm?

Jaco

Like I said, the GDM used in 9.04 and later doesn't support that kind of themes any more.

The Appearance dialog, when opened as user "gdm", allows you to change the GTK and icon theme, fonts and background image for the login screen.

[undecim]

Undecim, I don't think it will be so easy to change my gdm theme. I tried to go to /var/gdm, but there is not a directory with that name. I then tried the appear-properties, but it looks like that is just to change the background and theme of my desktop. I also tried gksudo nautilus, but find nothing associated with gdm.

I did whereis gdm and got back /etc/gdm /usr/lib/gdm and /usr/share/gdm.
I don't see any images or themes in any of those directories.

I don't know where to go from here.

Jaco

P.S. Philinux I apologize for posting to unlock root, I didn't know that was illegal.

Like mcduck explained, GDM doesn't support the old themes anymore. Changing settings from the command I provided should change them for the gdm user which handles the login screen.

As for the lack of a /var/gdm directory, I could be wrong about that path. I don't have GDM on my computer anymore, so I don't have a reference for myself, but the gdm user has a home directory somewhere on the system. If you run "grep gdm /etc/passwd" in a terminal, you will see gdm's passwd entry, which will include this directory.