Change the Background of Login Screen in Ubuntu 11.10

LightDM is the login manager used in Ubuntu 11.1o. It is a very lightweight login manager. You can make themes for LightDM without much difficulty. You can change the login background or  the logo  with a very simple programme called “simple LightDM Manager”.

Install Simple LightDM Manager in Ubuntu 11.10

Simple LightDM Manager is written by Claudio. The programme will allow you to change the LightDM background and logo from a gui interface. Just select a picture from your computer and set it as the background of the login screen.

To install, Simple LightDM Manager in your ubuntu 11.10 just open a terminal [Ctrl+Alt+T] and execute the following commands

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:claudiocn/slm
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install simple-lightdm-manager

Change the Login Screen Background in Ubuntu 11.10

You can directly edit the unity-greeter.conf file to change the login screen background or logo. The file is located in /etc/lightdm directory. To edit the file you need root permission.

Open a terminal (Ctrl+Alt+t) and type the command (to manually edit the lightDM configuration file) –

sudo gedit /etc/lightdm/unity-greeter.conf

Then a new window will appear, where you need to provide the path for the background image.

In the [greeter] section Line no 12 you will get a value called background. Just put the file name with full path /path/to/filename.jpg

then save and exit. Be cafefull the path must be correct and the file have a read permission other wise LightDM will crash.

Related articles

• Ubuntu 11.10 LightDM Login Screen Turned On (omgubuntu.co.uk)
• LightDM Rocks: 3D Animated Login Screen… With Imps (omgubuntu.co.uk)
• [How To] Change LightDM Background in Ubuntu 11.10 (omgubuntu.co.uk)
• Laudeci Oliveira: Changing lightdm background. (laudecioliveira.org)