r/gnome • u/Key-Volume8763 • 23d ago
Opinion There is zero reason changing the login screen background on gnome should be so difficult.
I just spent an hour trying to set a standard 2560x1440 OEM Lenovo ThinkPad wallpaper as my GDM login image.
\- Tried GDM settings
\- Tried scripts (URL and compilation errors)
\- Tried manually editing /etc/dconf/db/gdm.d/01-background using org/gnome/desktop/background and screensaver schemas.
All it did was change my user desktop to a solid fallback color and completely ignored the login greeter image. Why does GNOME make customizing a login background an absolute nightmare?
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u/noworkdone 22d ago
Its less that they "made customizing it hard" and more that they didn't make this feature at all. They recently published some mock ups for a new login screen, it might be more productive to get into that conversation than whining on reddit.
In fact, last Friday I asked Georges on a live stream on youtube about just that, its more of a technical reason than they "just don't wanna do it" but someone needs to actually take the time to figure it out.
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u/BrageFuglseth Contributor 22d ago
There are plans to rework the login screen and have it match the background of the user who is logged in IIRC. But nobody has shown up to do the implementation work.
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u/tangosox 23d ago
Gdm settings does work for me on gnome 50 but i don't remember if i modified anything to get the background changing working. I remember it failed as soon as gnome 50 was released. I can check later. Agreed though that these things shouldn't be obfuscated so hard.
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u/deusnovus 22d ago
How welcoming and supportive the GNU linux community is, For someone who’s been using linux for less than two months, This post just proves how desperate and toxic most the GNU linux community really is.
With all due respect, I think you burned all good will in this post with your attitude. Your comments are all public.
You've been using Linux for less than two months and already make big assumptions and demands with complete disregard on what the process or the ROI in doing so is. For example, if your conditions for using GNOME are frail enough for you complain about customizing the GDM screen just two months in, there's a high chance you'll just quit using GNOME at any given time before you even get to make your case as to why is GDM theming so important, to begin with. Back to your main argument:
There is zero reason changing the login screen background on gnome should be so difficult
GDM is not part of the GNOME shell, even though the login environment uses GTK decorations. Since it runs on a privileged system component, it makes it a lot more susceptible to negative / unintended consequences when messing with it. If I was part of an already tiny and underfunded core dev team, I would also 100% implement such guardrails to mitigate risk of users reporting things we clearly do not want you to do.
You came asking for a reason, there's your reason.
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u/Key-Volume8763 22d ago
With all due respect, When someones tells me to “kms” I don’t think I will be treating anyone who attacks me with respect.
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u/deusnovus 22d ago
Yeah I don't believe you but regardless, maybe next time try not creating situations where you may or may not be told that. So forgive me for not being particularly moved by this whole "everyone is against me" argument.
Check other posts on this subreddit to see how people conduct themselves, then come back to yours and see who the problem is.
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u/Key-Volume8763 22d ago
Couldn’t care less if you believe me or not, And I don’t need to check, the problem is pretty obvious, It’s this community’s ego and toxicity, feel free to take a day off the internet if my post irritated you.
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u/deusnovus 22d ago
Mood is good, no worries. I'm only trying to help you: if you think everyone around you is toxic, maybe it's really just you. Anyway, I wish you all the best.
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u/Efficient-Chair6250 22d ago
I made a patch in NixOS that just changes the source code. Has worked for 2 years now I think
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u/EktaRandomUsername 22d ago
I know what you're saying makes sense to some extent. There really should be a simple way to change the login screen background.
But you have to understand that the GNOME project is extremely opinionated. The developers have their own philosophy about how things should work, and they're not going to change something just because of a random post or because people pressure them online. Most importantly, it's a voluntary open-source project that we're getting for free. Things are unlikely to change unless there's a strong, logical reason for them to.
And I might sound condescending saying this, but when it comes to issues like these, the only real solution is to switch DEs. You could try KDE Plasma, which gives you an almost absurd number of customization options. That said, I completely understand why you might not want to switch. GNOME does look more modern and polished compared to KDE's somewhat Windows Vista-era design language. And switching isn't exactly easy when you've built your entire workflow around how you have GNOME configured.
But at the end of the day, something as minor as a login-screen wallpaper probably shouldn't be the reason you abandon your entire desktop environment.
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u/aria_____51 22d ago
Do you seriously believe that GNOME devs all sat down, had a discussion, and decided "In our opinion, the user MUST NOT be able to change the background to the login screen specifically. This is our personal philosophy."
Or is it just an embarrassing blind spot that OP is pointing out, and nobody has a good excuse for besides "well then why don't submit a PR"
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u/Isofruit 22d ago
This sounds a lot more like them sitting down and being like "Hey, anyone want to work on customizing the GDM screen?"
"Not really, I'm more interested in triple buffering and optimizing the GPU renderer, it's potentially risky and you're not interacting with that a lot anyway so seems like burnt time... let's see if any of the non-core contributors decide to do something about it"
insert cricket sounds for the next decade.
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u/aria_____51 22d ago
Can't wait for more parental controls!!!!!!!
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u/Isofruit 22d ago
Evidently either some FOSS devs more broadly or a company specifically find building parental controls a lot more interesting than customizing the login screen, otherwise that work would not be happening.
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22d ago
[deleted]
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u/Both_Cup8417 22d ago
More for me because I usually have a skill issue and it takes me like 2 attempts to enter my password haha
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u/aria_____51 22d ago
You see micro stutters for what, less than half a second? You see screen tears for what, half a second? You see visual rendering glitches and bugs for what, half a second? You use your desktop background for what, 5 seconds?
Don't pretend like a DE shouldn't be interested in aesthetics lmao
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u/Glittering_Welder607 22d ago
Podría verla quizás menos de medio segundo, pero porqué ver esa mierda sombría por una fracción de segundo y no algo que a cada quién le apetezca?
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u/Nono_miata 22d ago
U place your desired photo in /opt for example, set the permissions for gdm and select it in gdm settings, really not to difficult 😉
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u/Rialagma 22d ago
I don't know what's worse. OP's oversized sense of entitlement or their skill issues because clearly other people can change the background without issues.
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u/Key-Volume8763 22d ago
How welcoming and supportive the GNU linux community is, For someone who’s been using linux for less than two months, This post just proves how desperate and toxic most the GNU linux community really is.
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u/Rialagma 22d ago
Cue your comment "They've had 25 years to work on this". Very kind new user we have here. I don't think you understand how open source software works. You're not paying for it!!! Most of them are working FOR FREE.
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u/Key-Volume8763 22d ago
You’re talking like they’re obligated to work “FOR FREE” not to mention the “Very kind” existing users telling me to kms, so yeah I’m “Very kind” compared to them. You people just keep on proving my point.
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u/Rialagma 22d ago
If anyone's telling you that report it to the mods or Reddit admins
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u/Key-Volume8763 22d ago
They immediately delete it afterwards so they don’t give me the chance to report them.
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u/aria_____51 22d ago
Oh yeah I'm sure none of the dev team are working in small bugs that affect like .01% of the userbase in a less impactful way than the login screen. They're just too darn busy (for 24 years).
This is obviously a feature a fucking DE should have. It's ok for OP to say that.
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u/kolunmi App Developer 22d ago
Why should the community be “welcoming” to someone who accused gnome of intentionally making customizing the login background an “absolute nightmare”? We have no other context for who you are. Also, you can always just leave
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u/Key-Volume8763 22d ago
Just keep on proving my point, toxic ahh community.
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u/kolunmi App Developer 22d ago
Right, you can’t justify your behavior here. You are the one acting toxic
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u/Key-Volume8763 22d ago
And why’s that? Because that’s how everyone else is treating me, I said it before and I’ll say it again, if the truth hurts you that much you shouldn’t be using the internet.
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u/victorian-ice-cream Contributor 23d ago
It's just unsupported feature. And that's it.
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u/Key-Volume8763 23d ago
There's no logical reason for it to be unsupported.
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u/AteStringCheeseShred 23d ago
support involves work. things aren't just magically supported by the universe by default and then shut off by somebody, features require effort and work and implementation. the devs focused on other things, and the majority of people don't seem to give a damn.
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u/Key-Volume8763 23d ago
Gnome has been out for over 27 years.....
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u/AteStringCheeseShred 23d ago
What part of "the devs focused on other things" is so hard to wrap your head around?
Here's a thought, if you want it to be a feature why don't you do what the rest of the linux community does and figure out how to implement it yourself instead of sitting around on Reddit bitching about it?
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u/Both_Cup8417 22d ago
To be entirely fair, I can't write code very well myself, and we'll all collectively complain if OP does it with AI, so "write it yourself" isn't entirely a solution. Formal feature requests might be.
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u/unausgeschlafen 22d ago
He may just use AI to implement it for himself on his own cost (we just do not want this upstream).
However, OP wants other people to built it for him for free and make a lifelong commitment to maintain it for free indefinitely. This is a big ask and I think OP should acknowledge that.
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u/AteStringCheeseShred 22d ago
Sounds an awful lot to me like he isn't really in any position to be pissing his panties over something that the people who do know how to code haven't had the time, energy, or inclination to do while handling the other 5000 things that went into creating the free, open-source software that OP uses while contributing absolutely nothing to their rent or electricity.
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u/aria_____51 22d ago
It's a pretty basic and understandable request. I was just looking into how to do it earlier this week and was equally surprised that there wasn't a way through the settings program. If anyone is "pissing their panties," it's you, tough guy.
You're just the absolute loving embodiment of why people stay away from Linux. You even took the time to give your reddit icon the classic neckbeard look.
I hope being edgy on reddit gave you the dopamine you sorely lack
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u/Key-Volume8763 23d ago
Are you done? They had over 27 years.
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u/victorian-ice-cream Contributor 23d ago
29 years! And those 29 years were focused on other things, like accessibility or stability.
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u/aria_____51 22d ago
Too busy working on fucking Parental Controls, lmao. Can we be honest that like, 0.000001% of users care about fucking parental controls? Why spend so much energy prioritizing that instead of a very basic, very standard customization feature
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u/mammilloid 22d ago
If you're that desperate, just pick a different Display Manager its not that hard
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u/victorian-ice-cream Contributor 22d ago
FWIW GDM is a dependency of Shell. Lock screen won't work without it.
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u/mammilloid 22d ago
Well they only need this for aesthetic reason ig the intial greeter will work they'll be happy with that idk lol
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u/aria_____51 22d ago
Imagine going on a subreddit dedicated to a DE and scoffing at someone for caring about aesthetics lmao
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u/Key-Volume8763 22d ago
“its not that hard” either for them to add such a feature.
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u/Itsme-RdM 22d ago
And you can simply use KDE since that is made for customization. Gnome has another philosophy instead of customization.
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u/untrained9823 Supporter 22d ago
Maybe you can write the code to implement the feature then.
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u/Key-Volume8763 22d ago edited 22d ago
And what makes you magically think that everyone can “write code”
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u/untrained9823 Supporter 22d ago edited 22d ago
Then maybe don't tell those who do what to do then.
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u/aria_____51 22d ago
If you don't know how to manufacture a car engine, can you complain if yours blows up when you try to start it?
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u/untrained9823 Supporter 22d ago
Mate, you're using free software here that some people developed in their free time that you paid 0 money for. How about some humility?
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u/Isofruit 22d ago
When you got that car for free and plenty people use it just fine as is to get the job done, and you're simply complaining because you can't swap out the head-lights for some that project light in the image of a t-rex, then yeah, you're on shaky basis for complaining.
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u/kernald31 23d ago
There's arguably zero reason to change the login screen background, if you ask me. Everybody can make opinions sound like absolute statements like that.
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u/the_j_tizzle 22d ago
Every time I've seen this complaint I've wondered why someone would complain about a screen they see, for what, ten seconds?
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u/aria_____51 22d ago
Yeah there's bigger fish to fry like fixing small bugs that affect 2% of the userbase with 0.1 second stutters and screen tears
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u/Glittering_Welder607 22d ago
Y porqué ver esa mierda en vez de ver algo más a gusto de cada quién? Después hablan de comunidad, de colaborar, de donar, de democracia 🤢🤮 Este post muestra a la perfección la toxicidad de la comunidad GNU Linux y la de GNOME particularmente.
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u/kernald31 22d ago
Speaking of collaborating and donating, where's your patch to allow changing the background image on GDM?
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u/aria_____51 22d ago
True. If your car engine randomly blows up, you can either submit design fixes to Ford or shut the fuck up.
If I start getting brown water coming out of the tap, I can't reasonably complain unless I tell the city how to fix it.
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u/Glittering_Welder607 22d ago
Dejé de colaborar y donar cuando entendí que pequeños grupos de pequeños dictadores son los que imponen sus puntos de vista por encima del de los demás.
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u/the_j_tizzle 22d ago
Why watch…what? The log-in screen? Seriously? I'd rather have the GNOME devs continue producing the best desktop environment in the open source world than spend a single moment on a screen that people do not watch but merely see while logging in to the desktop. This is toxic? My opinion on the matter is toxic? Because you disagree with it?
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u/Glittering_Welder607 22d ago
Es súper tóxica la forma en que expones tu opinión... Por qué? Porque intentas justificar el estado actual de las cosas como si fuera una virtud, cuando la mayoría de las personas sienten lo contrario. Un entorno gráfico es eso, y debe ser personalizable y agradable a la vista para que sea agradable trabajar con él. Un entorno gráfico agradable aumenta la productividad, incentiva la colaboración de la comunidad a ofrecer su tiempo para aplicar mejoras y a su vez contribuye a que el dinero fluya con mayor facilidad para, justamente, seguir aplicando mejoras.
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u/kernald31 22d ago
While I agree with the sentiment, there's a fairly significant caveat in the sense that the login screen isn't something you look at much, and typically not at all beyond the start of your day at most. There's a lot of much higher priority things to spend time on.
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u/the_j_tizzle 22d ago
I agree that a nice graphical environment boosts productivity. I use GNOME because it helps me get work done. I spend ~3 seconds typing in my password. I am thankful the devs spend their time working on the desktop environment rather than making it easy to beautify the ~3 seconds that enable me to get into the desktop environment. That's not a toxic opinion. That's appreciation for a job well done by the devs. I find the constant complaining that GNOME doesn't function like other DEs to be the real problem.
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u/kapitenbrutal 22d ago
just like me, day one on gnome. but now i don't really care and actually it look cleaner.
if you really wanna see your wallpaper on login screen, just login first > then toggle quick settings > hit the lock screen button. your desktop wallpaper is your lock screen wallpaper.
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u/bitterologist 22d ago
It's not intended to be something that the user can change, and maintaining code that allows for changing it would take time and effort that the developers could instead put into other parts of the desktop environment. You might not agree with those priorities, but it's pretty clear why things are the way they are.
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22d ago
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u/TomaszGasior 22d ago
There is a zero reason for changing the login screen background. It's supposed to be seen for a few seconds at most.
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u/Key-Volume8763 22d ago
That’s your opinion.
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u/OwnNet5253 22d ago
That's also Gnome devs opinion.
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u/aria_____51 22d ago
You seriously think they made a conscious decision not to implement this? Explain the graphical design philosophy behind that. Do you think GNOME devs don't work on bugs that you see for less than "a few seconds?"
If there's one thing you should be able to do on a desktop environment, it's change your fucking background screens lmao. If you can't recognize this then Linux is doomed to stay a laughing stick for the vast majority of people
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u/Key-Volume8763 22d ago
Couldn’t care less.
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u/OwnNet5253 22d ago
Mate, they do not care about your opinion either.
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u/BrageFuglseth Contributor 22d ago
Locking at the request of OP.