Customize Login Screen - Ubuntu 14.04

[GrouchyGaijin]

Hi Folks,

I know that there are a few different threads here and articles at other websites about customizing the login screen in Ubuntu 14.04, however after reading many different posts and recommendations I am still not able to customize my login screen.

Just to be clear, by login screen I mean the screen where you type in your password and by customize I mean use a wallpaper other than the wallpaper that is on the desktop once I have logged in.

Has anyone been able to successfully change the login screen wallpaper? If so, how exactly did you do so?
In the dconf editor I have changed the path to the image I want to use, yet the login screen continues to use the desktop wallpaper. See the attached scrot for my deconf editor settings.

I realize that this is a trivial issue that pales in comparison to other issues discussed here, nevertheless, any help would be appreciated.

[deadflowr]

I've never changed the path in the dconf settings, but my dconf settings has the draw-user-background checked.
And to use user-pictures you need to set the permissions of the picture for other(s) to read/read-only, at least.

[GrouchyGaijin]

Thanks - I rechecked the box labeled draw-user-backgrounds and made sure that my desired image is readable by others. However, the login screen still uses the desktop wallpaper as the background. How, specifically are you telling Ubuntu which image to use?

[deadflowr]

I open Appearance, I toggle the Wallpaper option to the Pictures option, or click on the plus button, and choose/add my picture.

You might check to see that the full path way to the picture is readable for other.
make sure /home/you/Pictures are all readable.
I think if the pictures are readable but the folder that they are in are not, then it cannot see them, since it cannot read what is in the folder.
If that makes sense.

[GrouchyGaijin]

I open Appearance, I toggle the Wallpaper option to the Pictures option, or click on the plus button, and choose/add my picture.

It sounds like we are talking about two different things. It sounds like you are talking about changing the desktop wallpaper.
I am talking about changing the background of the login screen before you actually get to the desktop. Although, I've misunderstood things in the past and I may be misunderstanding now.

[deadflowr]

Yeah my eyes are seeing what they want.
Now after re-reading post#1 do this:
From here
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LightDM#Changing_the_Wallpaper

You might need to create the file

/usr/share/glib-2.0/schemas/10_unity_greeter_background.gschema.override

I used gedit

gksu gedit /usr/share/glib-2.0/schemas/10_unity_greeter_background.gschema.override

and add the loines mentioned

[com.canonical.unity-greeter]
draw-user-backgrounds=false
background='/path/to/wallpaper.png'

make sure that you use the quotes to encapsulate the path, if that makes sense.
It erred for me when trying without quotes, so watch for that.
Then run the last command listed

sudo glib-compile-schemas /usr/share/glib-2.0/schemas/

and logout to see if the change happened.
It did for me.
Hope it does for you.

[GrouchyGaijin]

hmmm I followed your advice, including making sure that the quotes to encapsulate the path and then I restarted. I still have the desktop wallpaper being used as the background for the login screen.
I am wondering though, I usually use Unity, but have Gnome installed as well. I noticed, according to Synaptic that I have both: unity-greeter and lightdm-gtk-greeter installed. I wonder if that could be causing a problem? If I remove the lightdm-gtk-greeter will I still be able to login to Gnome?

[deadflowr]

Which log in screen was in use?
lightdm-gtk-greeter looks like the older variant, with the login window in the middle of the screen, where as unity-greeter has the login window area toward the left side area.If that makes sense.

But YES, you can still log into the gnome session without the lightdm-gtk-greeter.
You do not have to uninstall it though.
The link I provided also tells you how to set a default greeter.

I would recommend scrolling up to the top to get a full idea of how lightdm works.
Basically the easy way is to make the /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf.d/50-myconfig.conf file.

Use this file to add your personal configurations because this file won't get overwritten if some odd update from lightdm comes around.
Where as the files in /usr/share/lioghtdm will.
Updates for config files in the /etc folder will give you a warning if a new one is available, and whether or not to use the new one or keep the old one.

But basically make the file

gksu gedit /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf.d/50-myconfig.conf

and add

[SeatDefaults]
greeter-session=unity=greeter

save and the system should look there and use whatever setting for the greeter you choose.

Does that make any sense?

[GrouchyGaijin]

It's good to be back

Well, I attempted to follow your suggestions and had some difficulty - LOL.

1. Looked at the login screen and thought:"This login box seems to be dead on in the middle of the screen."
2. I attempted to run

gksu gedit /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf.d/50-myconfig.conf

3. Actually, the command ran fine. The problem was that I could not save the file.
4. I thought "hmmmm there does not seem to be a directory called lightdm.conf.d. Why don't I make one?
5. I created said directory using

sudo mkdir

and then created 50-myconfig.conf inside that directory.
6. I then set the contents of the 50-myconfig.conf file to:

[SeatDefaults]
greeter-session=unity=greeter

7. With a sense of confidence I rebooted, although looking back I suppose the fact that a simple logout was taking a very long time was a harbinger of issues to come.
8. I was told that my graphics (settings? hardware? - it's a blur now) could not be detected and that I must reconfigure them myself. That did not sound good.
9. But wait, I had the option of running in low graphics mode - that will work, just this one time I thought.
10. The low graphics choice initiated a loop in which I couldn't login, because the login screen could not be displayed so Ubuntu would try once again to display the login screen which could not be displayed....
11. Hold down the power button and try again - this time I chose boot to console.
12. Sensing that 30 minutes is simply too long to boot, I once again hit the power button to restart the machine. (Note: I did not sit there watching the machine for 30 minutes - LOL)
13. When I realized that booting to the console was going no where, I began The Hunt. That is, I was looking for an Ubuntu live CD. After a long search I found an old 10.10 CD that I didn't even know I still had.
14. I booted the 10.10 CD and navigated to /etc/lightdm/ where I removed the offending files that I had created earlier along with their lair - the lightdm.conf.d. directory.
15. I rebooted.
16. I could once again login although now there was a problem with gnome-shell. I am not sure what the problem actually was as when I clicked for more details, I read that there had been a crash. Ah THAT explains it.
17. I reinstalled gnome-shell and rebooted.

I seem to be able to login now without a crash. However, despite the fact that I do not often use gnome-shell I am afraid to remove it out of fear that the problem is that there is something very wrong with my unity-greeter configuration and without being able to use the lightdm-gtk-greeter I will not be able to login at all.

[TheFadedBrit]

Id of thought it would be as easy as changing the line to the directory the files are in however i may be wrong :/