Ubuntu – No unity-greeter.conf file in /etc/lightdm/

lightdmunity-greeter

I am running Ubuntu 12.04 with gnome-shell. I have two admin user accounts. Now, I used to know that in Precise we can set different different login wallpaper to different different user, so I tried with:

sudo dbus-send --system --print-reply --dest=org.freedesktop.Accounts /org/freedesktop/Accounts/User1001 org.freedesktop.Accounts.User.SetBackgroundFile string:/usr/share/backgrounds/Green-wallpaper-27.jpg

but to no avail.

Then I tried

sudo xhost +SI:localuser:lightdm
sudo su lightdm -s /bin/bash
gsettings set com.canonical.unity-greeter background '/path/to/the/wallpaper.png'

It does change my login wallpaper but for all users.

Then I tried to locate /etc/lightdm/unity-greeter.conf but I found that it is not there. So where is it and how can I set different login wallpapers for different users?

Best Answer

unity-greeter.conf was replaced with gsettings in unity-greeter 0.2.1, and hence unity-greeter.conf has been removed. To change a global setting you run 

sudo -u lightdm dbus-launch gsettings set com.canonical.unity-greeter <setting-name> <setting>

For string settings, I think you need quotes around the setting value.

For example:

sudo -u lightdm dbus-launch gsettings set com.canonical.unity-greeter background '/usr/share/backgrounds/Twilight_Frost_by_Phil_Jackson.jpg'

I use dconf-editor to browse through these settings, it's available in the dconf-tools package.

Now, what Mitch is saying does work, but it seems it might require you to change the wallpaper twice for the greeter to pick up the change. What you do is change your wallpaper, then change it back to what you want. Now when you click on different users in the login screen you will see different wallpapers. If you want the global change for users who haven't set a custom wallpaper, use the method above.

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