Changing login screen wallpaper

131,393

Solution 1

By trying the answer of Senio I had no luck. But with little modification I hit the jackpot :

sudo -i
xhost +SI:localuser:lightdm
su lightdm -s /bin/bash
gsettings set com.canonical.unity-greeter draw-user-backgrounds 'true'
gsettings set com.canonical.unity-greeter background 'path-to-image'
exit

path-to-image is actually the path where the image you want as log in screen wallpaper is stored e.g. : /usr/share/backgrounds/x.jpg

I tested it and it's working

I found this page which offers some tips regarding this problem : Ubuntu13.04 LighDM

Solution 2

Cheap and dirty solution: Got to Terminal, then:

sudo nautilus

Then use Nautilus to copy your preferred background to

/usr/share/backgrounds/

Then rename the image that is being used to backup-imagenameold.png Then rename your preferred image to the filename of the original background.

I know it's not clean or lean, but it does the job asap ;)

Cheers, Rüssel

Solution 3

Hmmm .. I try install dconf-editor to change that background. Open Terminal and type this script ..

sudo apt-get install dconf-editor

Run dconf-editor:

sudo dconf-editor

And show the Window ... Open com > canonical > unity-greeter Then change:

draw-user-backgrounds: 'true'
background: 'path-to-image'

Solution 4

Its very simple.

Open a terminal
become root and change current folder
```
sudo su
cd /usr/share/backgrounds/
```
Copy the picture file to this location
Change the file name to warty-final-ubuntu.png

That will change the login screen background image.

Source

Solution 5

I believe what you are looking for is:

sudo apt-get install lightdm-gtk-greeter
sudo vim /etc/lightdm/lightdm-gtk-greeter.conf

Change the line:

background=/usr/share/backgrounds/warty-final-ubuntu.png

to whatever you want. Hope this helps

View more solutions

131,393

Joren

Updated on September 18, 2022

Comments

Joren over 1 year

I have been trying to change my login screen wallpaper to one of my own using ubuntu-tweak. The wallpapers are located in Ubuntu's default wallpaper folder and I have given all users read privileges on them.

Now there isn't even a wallpaper left on the login screen.
- Mitch almost 11 years
  
  Have a look at my answer Here, and see if it helps.
- Joren almost 11 years
  
  I have already tried that and it didn't work.
- Lucio almost 11 years
  
  What version of Ubuntu do you have? I use to have a login screen with the wallpaper of the user but now in Ubuntu 13.04 this function is disabled, at least by default..
- Joren almost 11 years
  
  @Lucio I'm running Ubuntu 13.04. Would there be an alternative option?
- rubo77 almost 5 years
  
  In Ubuntu 18.04 this changed again, here is a tutorial, how to change it: vitux.com/how-to-change-login-lock-screen-background-in-ubun‌tu
Joren almost 11 years

I have followed your steps but I am still seeing no wallpaper in my login screen.
Joren over 10 years

I also confirmed that this works in 13.10 too.
rubo77 over 8 years

Or in one line: sudo su -c 'echo "background=/usr/share/backgrounds/Tranquil_by_Pat_David.jpg‌">>/etc/lightdm/ligh‌tdm-gtk-greeter.conf‌'
rubo77 over 8 years

This doesn't work on my Ubuntu Studio 15.10 , upgraded with ubuntu-desktop
Scott Stensland about 8 years

Interestingly this continues to work even for ubuntu 16.04 ... albeit the file must be a png
Byte Commander about 8 years

It would be great if you could elaborate your answer a bit and provide more details to each step. How to install Ubuntu Tweak would be nice as well as a few screenshots maybe.
wordsforthewise almost 8 years

this was actually the easiest. A lot of the other answers didn't work and were more complex than this
Priidu Neemre almost 8 years

This is a good and universal solution -- one probably needs dconf-editor for other stuff anyway. +1
JonasCz almost 8 years

I believe the OP is referring to the background wallpaper, not the little user picture / avatar.
JonasCz almost 8 years

This doesn't seem to work on 16.04 either: Separate wallpaper for login screen and desktop? (16.04 LTS)
masu almost 8 years

@JonasCz Works for the lock screen in 16.04 though...
Martin Ewing almost 8 years

Works nicely for me on 16.04. It is most appropriate for systems that have a single user. The background is obviously user-specific.
Marcel over 7 years

Simple, works on Ubuntu 14.04.
turkus over 7 years

@JonasCz for me works also on 16.04, maybe you forgot to put your wallpaper to /usr/share/backgrounds/ and use this path /usr/share/backgrounds/bg-image.jpg when using commands from the answer.
manniL over 7 years

@JonasCz but the little user picture / avatar will be used as the login screen background!
theYnot over 7 years

This is the only one that worked for me in 16.10
Apurv about 7 years

This does work, but how can I centre the image and scale it to like 0.5 times the original image?
Bill almost 7 years

thanks. for me I have to set "draw-user-backgrounds" to false to make the image show, otherwise it's just a color gradient.. good luck.
guttermonk almost 4 years

Didn't have to restart, but this worked great for me. Thank you! Also wanted to add that you can just change the hex code and leave the file path alone, if you just want to change the color.