How to change the GDM3 background picture in Debian GNU/Linux 7 (Wheezy)
This evening I was trying to find the correct way to set the GDM3 background-picture. I wanted to set it to my own image file journey-login-background.jpg. I thought I share the results.
Obviously the way to set the GDM login picture has changed a lot in Wheezy.
Formerly it has been configured by the desktop-base package in:
/usr/share/gdm/greeter-config/10_desktop-base
(/gdm3/10_desktop-base in the source-package)
The line:
/desktop/gnome/background/picture_filename /usr/share/images/desktop-base/login-background.svg
pointed to the login-background image.
A second line was used to set how the picture is shown:
/desktop/gnome/background/picture_options zoom
This doesn't seem to work anymore.
Another way to set the login-background was to use similar lines in /etc/gdm3/greeter.gconf-defaults
/desktop/gnome/background/picture_filename /usr/share/images/desktop-base/login-background.svg
/desktop/gnome/background/picture_options zoom
This also doesn't work for me.
Now with GDM3 the login-background obviously is set by GSettings.
There seem to be three possibilities:
1.) Add these lines in /etc/gdm3/greeter.gsettings
[org.gnome.desktop.background]
picture-uri='file:///usr/share/images/desktop-base/journey-login-background.jpg'
picture-options='zoom'
In the last line you can choose between "zoom", "scaled" and "stretched".
After changing the file you have to run:
dpkg-reconfigure gdm3
to make the changes permanent. This worked for me.
Source: http://www.stderr.nl/Blog/Software/Gnome/Gnome3-Gdm3-Background.html
2.) Set the background in the terminal. I didn't try it, but obviously it can be done this way.
su -
su - gdm -s /bin/bash
`dbus-launch | sed "s/^/export /"`
GSETTINGS_BACKEND=dconf gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri "file:///usr/share/images/desktop-base/journey-login-background.jpg"
Please note that you must specify a file which user "gdm" has permission to read. For instance, user "gdm" cannot read files in your home directory.
Sources: http://www.webupd8.org/2011/07/change-gnome-3-login-screen-gdm3.html
Or: http://smashingweb.ge6.org/change-the-background-of-gnome-3-gdm-login-screen/
3.) Or, if you are just too lazy for that:
- delete /usr/share/images/desktop-base/login-background.svg
- create a symlink with the same name that points to the picture you want to use:
ln -s /usr/share/images/desktop-base/journey-login-background.jpg /usr/share/images/desktop-base/login-background.svg
(I used this as workaround when I created my theme.)
Source: http://yumechanmiru.blogspot.com/2011/03/howto-change-login-screen-on-debian.html
Hope this helps.
Ulrich
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