Where does Ubuntu store the picture that I set as my desktop?

Question

I have a pretty picture set as my desktop background, but I've lost the original file. However, my desktop is still set to this picture. How can I get back my picture?

Solution 1

Open up the file browser and press Ctrl+H, to show hidden files (ones that start with a .), now navigate to .cache → wallpaper.

Or hit Alt+F2 and type nautilus .cache/wallpaper/

Solution 2

If your image came from the internet, then I would suggest taking a Screenshot (Applications->Accessories->Take Screenshot).

Then upload your screenshot to TinEye.com. On the results page select "Biggest Image" from the left hand side navigation. Then look to see if the website has found your image.

This "Reverse Image Search" has enabled me to do what you're doing before.

Solution 3

If you run gconftool --get /desktop/gnome/background/picture_filename in a terminal then it will output the location of the image file.

(GConf is the GNOME settings manager, and /desktop/gnome/background/picture_filename is the particular setting you are retrieving. You can also browse these settings graphically by using the gconf editor.)

Or hit Alt+F2 and type

 eog `gconftool --get /desktop/gnome/background/picture_filename`

(this opens your image with the default image viewer, Eye of GNOME)

Comments

[Ryan C. Thompson]

These seem to be zoomed versions of the original. Does Ubuntu also store the original file somewhere?

[flo]

No, it doesn't - unfortunately. You can use find / 2> /dev/null | grep warty to search everywhere on your disk. Replace warty with something that you would expect in the file name of the image. Perhaps there happens to be a copy somewhere, but nautilus doesn't create one.

[Ryan C. Thompson]

This is another good trick.