Ubuntu 22.04 Change login screen background

If you are like most users, you will want to customize your Ubuntu 22.04 system to make it feel more personalized. One of the most obvious ways to do this is to change your desktop wallpaper. You can also take it one step further and change the background of your login screen.

In this tutorial, we will go over the step by step instructions to change the login screen background on Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy Jellyfish GNOME desktop. This will involve the download of a Bash script to allow us the ability to change it.

In this tutorial you will learn:

  • How to download Bash script to change login background screen
  • How to change login screen background to a custom image
Custom login screen background in Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy Jellyfish Linux
Custom login screen background in Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy Jellyfish Linux
Software Requirements and Linux Command Line Conventions
Category Requirements, Conventions or Software Version Used
System Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy Jellyfish
Software N/A
Other Privileged access to your Linux system as root or via the sudo command.
Conventions # – requires given linux commands to be executed with root privileges either directly as a root user or by use of sudo command
$ – requires given linux commands to be executed as a regular non-privileged user

Ubuntu 22.04 Change login screen background step by step instructions



  1. The first thing we will need to do is download a Bash script that helps us to easily change the background image of our login screen. The script is hosted in a GitHub repo and can be downloaded with the following wget command.
    $ wget -qO - https://github.com/PRATAP-KUMAR/ubuntu-gdm-set-background/archive/main.tar.gz | tar zx --strip-components=1 ubuntu-gdm-set-background-main/ubuntu-gdm-set-background
    
  2. The following package is a requirement for the script to run and must be installed first:
    $ sudo apt update
    $ sudo apt install libglib2.0-dev-bin -y
    
  3. Once the script has downloaded and you know the path to your custom image, you can utilize the script along with the --image option like so:
    $ sudo ./ubuntu-gdm-set-background --image /usr/share/backgrounds/ubuntu_by_arman1992.jpg
    
    Running the script successfully changed out login screen background
    Running the script successfully changed out login screen background

    Of course, replace the image path above with that of your own image.

  4. Once you are done, you will need to reboot your computer to verify the change.
    $ reboot
    
    Our custom image has been applied to the lock screen background
    Our custom image has been applied to the lock screen background
  5. If you find you do not like the change or you run into some other issue, you can always execute the below command to reset your login background to the default image:
    $ sudo ./ubuntu-gdm-set-background --reset
    
  6. Note that you may also try setting a gradient with --gradient option and specifying the HEX numbers for two colors. Here’s an example.


    $ sudo ./ubuntu-gdm-set-background --gradient horizontal \#008FCD \#BCBDBD
    
    Horizontal gradient background on the lock screen
    Horizontal gradient background on the lock screen
  7. Alternatively you could also simply set a solid color. For example:
    $ sudo ./ubuntu-gdm-set-background --color \#5D0308
    
    Solid color has been applied as the lock screen background on Ubuntu 22.04
    Solid color has been applied as the lock screen background on Ubuntu 22.04

Closing Thoughts




In this tutorial, you saw how to change the login screen background on Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy Jellyfish Linux. This is facilitated by a Bash script that allows us to use a custom image, vertical or horizontal gradient, or solid background color. Hopefully this helps make your PC feel a little more personalized.