How to convert GDM themes to MDM themes for Mint 13

[Lantesh]

Credit for this tutorial goes to Webupd8. I am simply reposting the information here. The original tutorial can be found at http://www.webupd8.org/2012/05/install-mint-display-manager-mdm-in.html. It was written for Ubuntu users, so I have removed the part that details how to install MDM since it comes installed with Mint 13. I have tested this out with an old Star Trek GDM theme I used to use, and it works perfectly. Thank you Clem for bringing back the old GDM goodness with MDM. I think this is a great move for Mint!

From the article:
Linux Mint 13 has introduced a new display manager called MDM, that supports themes just like the old GDM 2.20 (which has been used as the base for MDM).

You can download more MDM themes from Gnome Look. To use a theme, you'll have to extract the downloaded archives because you'll have to make some changes:
rename the "GdmGreeterTheme.desktop" file to "MdmGreeterTheme.desktop"
open "MdmGreeterTheme.desktop" with a text editor and change "[GdmGreeterTheme]" to "[MdmGreeterTheme]"
Once you're done, archive the theme folder to .tar.gz and use the MDM Configuration Tool (mdmsetup) to install the new theme:

Note: when renaming the .desktop file, it may automatically be renamed to "MdmGreeterTheme.desktop.desktop" - if that happens, use the terminal to rename it to "MdmGreeterTheme.desktop" (a single .desktop) using the "mv" command.

[GeneC]

Rather an old post, but a good idea.
I just tried it and am having some difficulty.
I did the modifications of the GDM themes, and archived them as xxx.tar.gz, but when I try to add them using sudo mdmsetup I get an error message saying that the are NOT xxx.tar.gz?
Did I do something wrong archiving them? (Right click in Thunar > create archive)?


Click on link for full size

Code: Select all

mdmsetup[7108]:

gzip: /home/gene/Autum is a directory -- ignored
/bin/tar: This does not look like a tar archive
/bin/tar: Exiting with failure status due to previous errors
/bin/tar: /home/gene/Autum: Cannot read: Is a directory
/bin/tar: At beginning of tape, quitting now
/bin/tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now


[GeneC]

Problem appeared to be with the original files I was attempting to convert.
I downloaded new ones from http://gnome-look.org/index.php?xcontentmode=150, they converted ok.
There are now some MDM themes there that install without converting.