I’ve been doing some tweaks on the machine I set up with Fedora 14 (Laughlin) using Gnome. Things were OK until I decided to change the login screen image. I checked System > Preferences but there were no configurations for the login screen. I did a Google search and found a solution that didn’t work for me. I’ve also read from forums that there was no way to change the image unlike the earlier versions of Fedora. I then had this idea of finding the image used as the login screen wallpaper and overwriting it with my preferred image. So I checked the “/usr/share/backgrounds/” directory and found a “laughlin” folder. Inside it is a folder named “default” that contains three other folders named normalish, standard, and wide and a laughlin.xml file. The three folders contained the default login screen image. If you open the xml file with a text editor, you’ll notice that a part of it specifies the path of the Laughlin wallpaper. Wide, Normalish, and Standard specifies the image dimensions. And using this xml file, we can change the login screen image.
Here’s what I did. First, I edited my image three times using the specified dimensions (this is optional) and saved them as PNG files. As root user (doing “su”), I then copied them to the three folders with respect to their dimensions.
[root@machine username]# cp /current/file/location/filename1.png /usr/share/backgrounds/laughlin/default/wide/
[root@machine username]# cp /current/file/location/filename2.png /usr/share/backgrounds/laughlin/default/standard/
[root@machine username]# cp /current/file/location/filename3.png /usr/share/backgrounds/laughlin/default/normalish/
Using vi, edit laughlin.xml and replace the filenames and save the file. See image below.
I logged off and there was my new login screen. I used a random Fedora wallpaper I got from the web. I’m also sorry for the low quality pictures.
Default Login Screen | New Login Screen |
Tweets that mention Change Login Screen Image on Fedora 14 « techTalks -- Topsy.com
Nov 26, 2010 @ 15:33:30
jimbo
Nov 30, 2010 @ 02:07:37
Awesome, worked great. Thank You sir.
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Nov 30, 2010 @ 05:00:55
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cogaritis
Dec 01, 2010 @ 04:05:26
This is one of the first versions of Fedora that I wanted to change the background image.
This worked great! Thank you!
cogaritis
Dec 01, 2010 @ 04:16:29
I found another way to edit this as well:
yum install gconf-editor
Change the key /desktop/gnome/background
Alvin Enguillo
Dec 01, 2010 @ 14:08:37
Thanks for sharing an insight. The background configuration using the gconf-editor will just change your wallpaper. I haven’t delved in deeper on this though. Thanks again.
Markus
Dec 24, 2010 @ 04:09:30
Thanks a lot! Very good description and helpful information! 😉
Troy
Jan 28, 2011 @ 23:13:23
I read another one on how to change the login screen using gconf-editor. In its case you copy the wallpaper file into a login file and later remove it leaving you with a new login screen wallpaper of your choice (not your desktop wallpaper, but your actual login wallpaper). Its a different sort of hack, but apparently works. See:
http://haks-fedoraproject.blogspot.com/2010/11/como-cambiar-el-login-screen-en-fedora.html
AL
Feb 09, 2011 @ 04:30:28
Thanks for the suggestion.
This is how I did it:
1) open terminal or konsole
2) change to su
3) go to /usr/share/backgrounds/laughlin/defaults/
4) Inside defaults are laughlin.xml, normalish, standard, and wide directories
5) laughlin.xml uses the laughlin.png in all these folders.
6) do the following command in all of the folders.
cp laughlin.png laughlin.png.old
7) Now copy your preferred login background to the three directories. Don’t forget to change the name of the new background as laughlin.png
It is a bit tedious but for two minutes its worth it. Hope this helps.
Good luck!
Techalex
Mar 03, 2011 @ 00:21:53
It works like champ! Thanks a lot!
Techalex
Mar 03, 2011 @ 00:22:32
AL,
It works like champ! Thanks a lot!
Alvin Enguillo
Mar 07, 2011 @ 13:54:45
I’m glad it helped!
Antoine
Mar 27, 2011 @ 01:15:00
I can’t save the changes it say’s that i do not have the permission..
Alvin Enguillo
Mar 27, 2011 @ 10:08:51
Make sure you have root access to the machine. Before issuing commands, use “su” or “sudo”. Type in your root password is asked.
est1981
Apr 12, 2011 @ 13:17:41
worked like a charm!
Samuel Dighan
Sep 16, 2011 @ 22:05:46
What happened to the control panel method for this? I am ok w/ your process, but it reminds me of the bad old days when you had to hack the X windows config to even get a desktop. This is not progress.
justinrpg
Dec 30, 2011 @ 09:06:37
this doesn’t work!!!!! It won’t allow me to move an image I want to use into the folder that you are supposed to put the image you want to use in… the option to do so is greyed out!!
Alvin T. Enguillo
Jan 05, 2012 @ 11:59:10
You should be a “root” user before issuing commands or moving files to other folders.
Andrew
Jan 25, 2012 @ 09:51:59
Thanks for the post, really easy to follow!
Alvin T. Enguillo
Jan 27, 2012 @ 09:21:19
Thanks! That’s nice to know. I do try to help others by giving easy-to-follow instructions.
DragonQ
Feb 04, 2012 @ 22:25:09
Thanks, this was the third method I tried and the only one that worked!
Xpro - The Linux Professionals
Mar 16, 2012 @ 18:06:11
kOoLiNuS
Apr 22, 2012 @ 00:15:58
thanks man!
how-to customize the login screen of Fedora 16 « /home/kOoLiNuS
Apr 22, 2012 @ 00:27:12
Alvin T. Enguillo
Apr 23, 2012 @ 09:07:15
You’re welcome. And thanks for the linkback.
personalizzare la schermata di accesso di Fedora 16 | kOoLiNuS ☞ il blog
Apr 25, 2012 @ 16:23:51
Requiem
Mar 25, 2013 @ 09:45:09
I can’t get laughlin.xml to open in gedit or vi. What did you so?
Alvin T. Enguillo
Mar 25, 2013 @ 10:11:14
You should have root privileges (sudo or su) to be able to open and edit laughlin.xml. If you still can’t edit it, take a screenshot of the error then send it to me: aenguillo[at]gmail[dot]com.