How do I change login background in elementary OS Freya or Loki?

Question

I cannot change the login screen background in elementary OS. Is there any way to change it?

Answer 1

You can change it by editing the file

sudo -i scratch-text-editor /etc/lightdm/pantheon-greeter.conf 

There you will find the line

default-wallpaper=/usr/share/backgrounds/elementaryos-default

Add a line to the file something like this:

default-wallpaper=/usr/share/backgrounds/168.jpg

Logout and you can see the change.

Answer 2

Just copy your wallpaper to /usr/share/backgrounds (you're going to need root privileges to do so) and then select your wallpaper from System Settings -Desktop - Wallpaper.

That should also change the login background.

In fact there is a bug where the login picture cannot be changed:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/elementaryos/+bug/1391716

also:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/pantheon-greeter/+bug/1324373

In this case the new images copied into the usr/share/backgroounds may not even be seen from Settings.

To fix this:

• Open Files as administrator

• Select the image file in /usr/share/backgrounds and open its Properties

• Change permissions to 644

• Use System Settings -Desktop - Wallpaper as normal

Answer 3

Copy your wallpaper in /usr/share/backgrounds

then :

cd /usr/share/backgrounds

Just remove the symlink and add another one.

sudo rm elementaryos-default
sudo ln -s yourWallpaper.jpg elementaryos-default

Answer 4

You can also install Wallpaper-Slideshow which will automatically change both your desktop and login background after a user-defined period of time.

Answer 5

I have another way ,worked with me without change anything by Permission or File.
1. You open Applicatons -> System Settings -> Desktop -> Click what wallpaper if u want.

=> That will change Backgrounds wallpaper and Login wallpaper

2. You chose what picture do you want to be backgrounds wall paper -> Right click -> Set background.

=> So your desktop will change and your login doesn't.

Explain :

1. will change elementary-default file by System.
2. Only background change

Note :

You should use 2560*1600 to be your login
And i don't thing rm elementary-default or editted by yourself is good idea
Move your picture to folder /usr/share/backgrounds/ so you can see it in your Desktop option

Answer 6

I reinstalled the system after a while and a new hard drive. Didn't have the problem at all so it must have been solved in updates. It's always better to update than to muck about with things

Answer 7

None of the above solutions work at the moment. Following method works fine (tested in elementary OS 6 ODIN and OS 5).

Full guide: https://www.debugpoint.com/2021/07/change-lock-login-screen-background-elementary-os/

Open a terminal in your elementary OS. Install git and following dependencies for greeter package.

sudo apt install git

sudo apt install -y gnome-settings-daemon libaccountsservice-dev libgdk-pixbuf2.0-dev libgranite-dev libgtk-3-dev libhandy-1-dev liblightdm-gobject-1-dev libmutter-6-dev libwingpanel-dev libx11-dev meson valac

Go to temporary /tmp directory and clone the latest greeter master branch from GitHub.

cd /tmp
git clone https://github.com/elementary/greeter.git

After cloning is complete, open the path /tmp/greeter/data in a file manager.

Rename your desired wallpaper image with texture.png and overwrite the following file in the path /tmp/greeter/data/texture.png

Open the file /tmp/greeter/compositor/SystemBackground.vala in a text editor and replace the following line -

resource:///io/elementary/desktop/gala/texture.png

with

resource:///io/elementary/greeter/texture.png

Save the file.

Open the terminal again and build greeter using the following commands.

cd /tmp/greeter
meson _build --prefix=/usr
sudo ninja install -C _build

All done. Test using -

lightdm --test-mode --debug

Answer 8

If you use the system settings to change the background, the new background is stored in

~/.cache/wallpaper/.

You can copy the new background by hand or let do the job by incron. Incron is a filebased cron. If you have installed and edit /etc/incron.allow, you can use incrontab for the copy job.

Call

incrontab -e

and insert

/home/USER/.cache/wallpaper/ IN_CLOSE_WRITE cp /home/USER/.cache/wallpaper/$# /usr/share/backgrounds/elementaryos-default

And every time you change the background of your desktop, the logon background will also changed.

Answer 9

Yes you can change it !! Instructions in the following link: Change Lock Screen wallpaper in elementary OS. It's basically copy your wallpaper into /usr/share/backgrounds/ , rename it to elementaryos-default and change properties to read (644).

Answer 10

I had this problem and am only a self taught linux user but this is how I solved it and the bug of the greeter. I deleted the elementaryos-default.jpg file and replaced it with one I liked and changed the image name back to elementaryos-default.png (the one I liked is png file) This gave me a white screen on user accounts,except the main admin one

Thinking as it's a new install of my OS and I HAVE A GOOD BACKUP, it doesn't really matter a lot if I mess up I did this.

I renamed all the files with "wallpaper" in the name - one at a time

I changed recursively all the files and the backgrounds folder to 777

Then I did this:

sudo su
ls -l

total 27872

-rw-r--r-- 1 saparonia saparonia   60293 Oct 15  2015 1877-wallpaper.jpg

-rw-r--r-- 1 saparonia saparonia  106528 Feb 10 20:18 1a-wallpaper.jpg

-rw-r--r-- 1 saparonia saparonia   76441 Mar 28 22:55 1b-wallpaper.jpg

-rw-r--r-- 1 saparonia saparonia   53674 Jan  3 19:09 1c-wallpaper.jpg

-rw-r--r-- 1 saparonia saparonia   33025 May 14  2014 1d-wallpaper.jpg

-rw-r--r-- 1 saparonia saparonia  105513 Oct 16  2014 1e-wallpaper.jpg

-rw-r--r-- 1 saparonia saparonia   52607 Sep 23  2015 1f-wallpaper.jpg

-rw-r--r-- 1 saparonia saparonia 1426136 Feb 23 21:19 1g-wallpaper.jpg

-rw-r--r-- 1 saparonia saparonia 1388122 Feb 23 21:24 1h-wallpaper.jpg

-rw-r--r-- 1 saparonia saparonia 3245250 Feb 23 21:25 1i-wallpaper.jpg

-rw-r--r-- 1 saparonia saparonia  144468 Dec 26 17:36 1j-wallpaper.png

-rw-r--r-- 1 saparonia saparonia  514417 Oct 14  2014 1k-wallpaper.png

-rw-r--r-- 1 root      root       596305 Jan 21 01:01 1l-wallpaper.jpg

-rw-r--r-- 1 saparonia saparonia   39549 Oct  6  2015 1m-wallpaper.jpg

-rw-r--r-- 1 saparonia saparonia  626079 Mar 20 18:43 1n-wallpaper.png

-rw-r--r-- 1 root      root       369125 Jan 21 01:01 1o-wallpaper.jpg

-rw-r--r-- 1 root      root      1216788 Jan 21 01:01 1p-wallpaper.jpg

-rw-r--r-- 1 root      root       902549 Jan 21 01:01 1q-wallpaper.jpg

-rw-r--r-- 1 root      root       248439 Jan 21 01:01 1r-wallpaper.jpg

-rw-r--r-- 1 root      root       284736 Jan 21 01:01 1s-wallpaper.jpg

-rw-r--r-- 1 root      root      1116445 Jan 21 01:01 1t-wallpaper.jpg

-rw-r--r-- 1 saparonia saparonia 2958367 Nov  5  2015 1u-wallpaper.png

-rw-r--r-- 1 saparonia saparonia  214524 Nov  5  2015 1v-wallpaper.jpg

-rw-r--r-- 1 root      root       518625 Jan 21 01:01 1-wallpaper.jpg

-rw-r--r-- 1 saparonia saparonia 2634642 Nov  5  2015 1w-wallpaper.png

-rw-r--r-- 1 saparonia saparonia  483944 Oct 12  2015 1x-wallpaper.png

-rw-r--r-- 1 root      root      1161255 Jan 21 01:01 1y-wallpaper.jpg

-rw-r--r-- 1 saparonia saparonia  134226 Dec 12  2014 1z-wallpaper.png

-rw-r--r-- 1 saparonia saparonia  906804 Nov  7 08:43 2a-wallpaper.png

-rw-r--r-- 1 saparonia saparonia   29273 Apr 12 22:07 2b-wallpaper.jpg

-rw-r--r-- 1 saparonia saparonia   60631 Mar 27 11:31 2c-wallpaper.jpg

-rw-r--r-- 1 root      root      1497930 Jan 21 01:01 2d-wallpaper.jpg

-rw-r--r-- 1 root      root       768501 Jan 21 01:01 2e-wallpaper.jpg

-rw-r--r-- 1 root      root       576166 Jan 21 01:01 2f-wallpaper.jpg

-rw-r--r-- 1 root      root       200307 Jan 21 01:01 2g-wallpaper.jpg

-rw-r--r-- 1 saparonia saparonia  168051 Apr  4  2015 2h-wallpaper.jpg

-rw-r--r-- 1 root      root       467776 Jan 21 01:01 2i-wallpaper.jpg

-rw-r--r-- 1 root      root       397147 Jan 21 01:01 2-wallpaper.jpg

-rw-r--r-- 1 saparonia saparonia   54136 Oct 17  2015 3-wallpaper.jpg

-rw-r--r-- 1 saparonia saparonia   66901 Jul 30  2015 4-wallpaper.jpg

-rw-r--r-- 1 saparonia saparonia   80100 Mar 30  2015 5-wallpaper.jpg

-rw-r--r-- 1 root      root       703958 Jan 21 01:01 6-wallpaper.jpg

-rw-r--r-- 1 root      root       498830 Jan 21 01:01 7-wallpaper.jpg

-rw-r--r-- 1 root      root       633430 Jan 21 01:01 8-wallpaper.jpg

-rw-r--r-- 1 root      root       480634 Jan 21 01:01 9-wallpaper.jpg

-rw-r--r-- 1 saparonia saparonia  141363 Oct 18  2014 elementaryos-default.png

root@Florence:/usr/share/backgrounds# cd /usr/share/

root@Florence:/usr/share# chown -R saparonia:saparonia /usr/share/backgrounds/

root@Florence:/usr/share# chmod -R 755 /usr/share/backgrounds/

root@Florence:/usr/share# cd /usr/share/backgrounds/

root@Florence:/usr/share/backgrounds# chmod 644 elementaryos-default.png

root@Florence:/usr/share/backgrounds# 

The greeter now shows each login image when I scroll through users It works but I get a scrambled image for about a second when logging in on any user account

Answer 11

This is a bit of a hack however in Loki (0.4.1) You can right-click on the login background image and set it as desktop, then through the command line enter the command:

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri file:///path/to/file

This will set the user's background image. Allowing you to have different images.

It's a bit hacky but it is the simplest way (2ish steps)

EG:

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri file:///home/wwjdtd/pictures/801.png