Login screen background doesn't change

[HawaiianPi]

From what I read in the Introducing Pixel blog post, the login/greeter screen background was supposed to match the desktop background.

For those who prefer to log in manually each time, the login screen has been redesigned to visually match the rest of the desktop; you now see the login box (known as the “greeter”) over your chosen desktop design, with a seamless transition from greeter to desktop.

I changed my desktop background, but the login screen is still the road picture.

Raspberry Pi3 running the 2016-09-23 Raspbian Jessie Pixel image, fully updated (sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade -y).

How do I change the login screen background?

[klricks]

Same issue for me as well.
To clarify:
When boot to GUI set with auto login disabled, the road.jpg image is always displayed at login.
As soon as the password is entered, the background then changes to whatever is set in Desktop Preferences (as it should do). Can be either another image or solid color (colour)...

[HawaiianPi]

So, no one knows how to change the login screen background?

Is this a bug that needs to be reported?

Is there anyone NOT having this problem?

[tap, tap, tap] Is this on?

[klricks]

So, no one knows how to change the login screen background?

Is this a bug that needs to be reported?

Is there anyone NOT having this problem?

[tap, tap, tap] Is this on?

Most people would use the default auto-boot to user pi and never see this.
It would need to somehow be reported as a bug but posting in this forum is not the way to do it.

I figured out how to change the background..... it's a cumbersome work-around but works.

If you remove or rename road.jpg then the boot screen will be gray:

Code: Select all

/usr/share/pixel-wallpaper/road.jpg

Copy the image you want to use to /usr/share/pixel-wallpaper and then rename it to road.jpg
(Or rename one of the existing images).

One quirk.... if you are using the same image for boot and background then you may notice the image will shift as the wallpaper mode setting..... stretch to fit etc., will affect the final background image only.

[klricks]

OK found an easier way......

Code: Select all

sudo nano /etc/lightdm/pi-greeter.conf

Change road.jpg below to what you want..

Code: Select all

[greeter]
default-user-image=/usr/share/raspberrypi-artwork/raspberry-pi-logo.png
desktop_bg=#d6d6d3d3dede
wallpaper=/usr/share/pixel-wallpaper/road.jpg
wallpaper_mode=crop
gtk-theme-name=PiX
gtk-icon-theme-name=PiX
gtk-font-name=Roboto Light 12

[HawaiianPi]

Thanks, I'll give that a try next time I'm on my Pi.

[spl23]

In the initial release of the PIXEL desktop, the greeter background matched that of the "pi" user - if you set the desktop while logged in as a user other than "pi", the greeter background didn't change.

This has now been changed - the greeter background will now always match the last background set using the Appearance Settings GUI tool, independent of user. So to set the background correctly, make sure your system is up to date (sudo apt-get update / sudo apt-get dist-upgrade) and then log in as your usual user, run Appearance Settings and select your desired desktop and save by pressing OK. The desktop set will then persist when the greeter is next shown.

This issue is complicated because when the greeter runs, no user is logged in, so user account settings cannot be read. This was the best compromise I could come up with which was most likely to give everyone what they were expecting to see, but it will fail if you have multiple user accounts between which you switch. I've yet to work out a sensible way to handle that, as user permissions fight against you!

If you want to set the desktop appearance manually, edit the file /etc/lightdm/pi-greeter.conf - it should be fairly obvious what the lines in there all do. (This is the file which is now written to by the Appearance Settings application.)

Apologies for any confusion!

[HawaiianPi]

Just tested this, and it does not work if you right-click on the desktop and use Desktop Preferences to set your background. You must use the Appearance Settings application under Preferences in the menu. Which is odd, because both will show the same background picture in their settings dialog, but only the latter will update the greeter background.

So if you want the same background picture on both the login/greeter screen and your desktop, use Menu > Preferences > Appearance Settings. If you want a different login/greeter screen, set it in Appearance Settings first (which will set both the greeter and desktop) then change the desktop picture with Desktop Preferences.

[spl23]

Just tested this, and it does not work if you right-click on the desktop and use Desktop Preferences to set your background. You must use the Appearance Settings application under Preferences in the menu. Which is odd, because both will show the same background picture in their settings dialog, but only the latter will update the greeter background.

...which would probably be why I said above to use the Appearance Settings application and not the Desktop Preferences dialog...

The Desktop Preferences dialog is an old piece of LXDE code - it may well be removed from PIXEL in a future release. If you want to make changes to the appearance of PIXEL, use the Appearance Settings dialog. (Or edit the config files manually if you prefer.)

[HawaiianPi]

Yes, I was aware of what you said, but you didn't specifically mention Desktop Preferences, so I just thought I'd post what I found while experimenting.

Thanks for the fix, by the way. That was quick.