Changing the gdm3 login theme

[xhytex]

Hi,
I have been very pleased with LMDE so far but I was wondering if it is possible to change the theme on the gdm3 login (e.g. background, gtk theme and icons). I originally tried the Ubuntu method of:

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sudo cp /usr/share/applications/gnome-appearance-properties.desktop /usr/share/gdm/autostart/LoginWindow

Then logging out, changing the settings and logging back in again and running:

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sudo unlink /usr/share/gdm/autostart/LoginWindow/gnome-appearance-properties.desktop

But the background and gtk theme didn't seem to change.

I then tried editing /etc/gdm3/greeter.conf-defaults and then running:

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sudo dpkg-reconfigure gdm3

I then did a Ctrl-Alt-Backspace to go back to the login screen and the login screen had changed to take account of the new settings.

However, after a restart it is back to the default green LMDE gdm3 theme. I have tried it a couple of times and each time the /etc/gdm3/greeter.conf-defaults file gets overwritten by the default. Is there anyway I can stop this from happening to make my changes permanent?

Thank you in advance.

[proxima_centauri]

Perhaps this link can be of some assistance -> http://www.khattam.info/howto-change-gd ... 11-14.html

[mads]

Hi!

Try the suggestion given in the third post here: http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=90&t=59359

[doktordave]

Same problem, and the above fixes don't work here. It appears that /etc/gdm3/greeter.gconf-defaults is being replaced/overwritten on every restart. I even re-installed gdm3, but no joy - same results.

[mads]

You can copy the picture you want to use to "/usr/share/backgrounds/linuxmint", and rename it to Talento-1.jpg.
Although this approach is not optimal, but it does the job.

[proxima_centauri]

And this failed as well?

I opened the file /usr/share/gdm/greeter-config/20_debian in a text editor as root and changed the line containing “/desktop/gnome/background/picture_filename” and gave the full path to the new location of wallpaper. I also changed the line containing “/desktop/gnome/interface/gtk_theme” and wrote the name of theme instead of the default (in my case it was Clearlooks and I changed it to an installed theme Equinox). Then I saved the file and logged out to see the changes.

[doktordave]

Yes, that failed as well. On this box, /usr/share/gdm/greeter-config/20_debian is a link to /etc/gdm3/greeter.gconf-defaults. Change one, change both. Either way, it's re-written on every restart.

Yeah, the copy and rename is a partial fix. The rest of the changes aren't there, but at least the GDM background will look the way I want.

I don't see the GDM all that long or anything, and it's no deal breaker in my case for LMDE. I have learned/remembered more about linux in the short time LMDE has been out than I did with Mint since Felicia. It will most likely be my distro of choice. I'm just stumped by whatever is overwriting any changes I make to /etc/gdm3/greeter.gconf-defaults.

[doktordave]

OK, I'm just a bit dense, it seems. It appears that I had the solution in my last post, and didn't notice.

I was doing something else, and an idea occurred to me: why not delete /usr/share/gdm/greeter-config/20_debian and replace it with a file containing my desired /etc/gdm3/greeter.gconf-defaults settings? Lo and behold, success!

Now, I may see problems down the road from this change, but it's working great for now.

[xhytex]

Hi everyone, apologies for being absent yesterday. Thank you doktordave for finding this workaround and thank you mads for your suggestion. I didn't think about replacing the symbolic link with the file I wanted. It does seem very odd that /etc/gdm3/greeter.gconf-defaults is getting overwritten on every restart. Although your workaround shows that it is in fact /usr/share/gdm/greeter-config/20_debian that is being read by gdm3. Maybe 20_debian shouldn't be a symbolic link? Anyway thank you!

[doktordave]

It was just an odd idea - I get WAY more from everyone here than I can give. I'm glad it's working, but I'd sure be a lot happier if I could figure out why the greeter.gconf-defaults file keeps being overwritten. Or even where the info is that is being written to it. This only fixes a symptom for now, it's certainly not a "cure".

[oOarthurOo]

It was just an odd idea - I get WAY more from everyone here than I can give. I'm glad it's working, but I'd sure be a lot happier if I could figure out why the greeter.gconf-defaults file keeps being overwritten. Or even where the info is that is being written to it. This only fixes a symptom for now, it's certainly not a "cure".

Do this as root.

Make changes here:

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/etc/gdm3/greeter.gconf-defaults

Apply the changes:

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invoke-rc.d gdm3 reload

Your changes should now persist.

[doktordave]

That didn't work here. The greeter.gconf-defaults is still being overwritten on every restart. The prior fix is still working. Any ideas on what script or program could be causing this? I'm not that knowledgeable on linux, and would like to learn as much as possible if I can.

[oOarthurOo]

That didn't work here. The greeter.gconf-defaults is still being overwritten on every restart. The prior fix is still working. Any ideas on what script or program could be causing this? I'm not that knowledgeable on linux, and would like to learn as much as possible if I can.

Perhaps its a Mint change. I'm running Debian and it works fine. If you set incorrect values it will default to a known working. So, for instance, if there's a typo in your path to the background image, if the theme doesn't exist in /usr/share/themes , and so on.

I'm no expert either, but post the contents of the greeter.gconf-defaults and of the most recent log under /var/log/gdm3/ they've got crazy names. :0-greeter. or some such. Anyway, let's have a look at those and see if there's anything worth seeing.

[doktordave]

I think you're onto something...

Contents of /var/log/gdm3/:0-greeter.log:

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** (<unknown>:2847): DEBUG: Client registered with session manager: /org/gnome/SessionManager/Client1
Window manager warning: Failed to read saved session file /var/lib/gdm3/.config/metacity/sessions/10fe87612d7064dff4129152161120988500000028430001.ms: Failed to open file '/var/lib/gdm3/.config/metacity/sessions/10fe87612d7064dff4129152161120988500000028430001.ms': No such file or directory
** (process:2861): DEBUG: Greeter session pid=2861 display=:0.0 xauthority=/var/run/gdm3/auth-for-Debian-gdm-yVlyLe/database

(polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1:2859): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: cannot register existing type `_PolkitError'

(polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1:2859): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_once_init_leave: assertion `initialization_value != 0' failed
gdm-simple-greeter[2861]: Gtk-WARNING: /build/buildd-gtk+2.0_2.20.1-2-i386-TNeM25/gtk+2.0-2.20.1/gtk/gtkwidget.c:5628: widget not within a GtkWindow
Window manager warning: Buggy client sent a _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW message with a timestamp of 0 for 0x1800020 (Login Wind)
Window manager warning: meta_window_activate called by a pager with a 0 timestamp; the pager needs to be fixed.
Window manager warning: Buggy client sent a _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW message with a timestamp of 0 for 0x1800020 (Login Wind)
Window manager warning: meta_window_activate called by a pager with a 0 timestamp; the pager needs to be fixed.
Window manager warning: CurrentTime used to choose focus window; focus window may not be correct.
Window manager warning: Got a request to focus the no_focus_window with a timestamp of 0.  This shouldn't happen!

** (gnome-power-manager:2860): WARNING **: Failed to send buffer
gdm-simple-greeter[2861]: WARNING: Failed to send buffer

(gnome-power-manager:2860): atk-bridge-WARNING **: AT_SPI_REGISTRY was not started at session startup.

(gnome-power-manager:2860): atk-bridge-WARNING **: IOR not set.

(gnome-power-manager:2860): atk-bridge-WARNING **: AT_SPI_REGISTRY was not started at session startup.

(gnome-power-manager:2860): atk-bridge-WARNING **: IOR not set.

(gnome-settings-daemon:2850): atk-bridge-WARNING **: AT_SPI_REGISTRY was not started at session startup.

(gnome-settings-daemon:2850): atk-bridge-WARNING **: IOR not set.

(gnome-settings-daemon:2850): atk-bridge-WARNING **: AT_SPI_REGISTRY was not started at session startup.

(gnome-settings-daemon:2850): atk-bridge-WARNING **: IOR not set.

(gnome-settings-daemon:2850): atk-bridge-WARNING **: AT_SPI_REGISTRY was not started at session startup.

(gnome-settings-daemon:2850): atk-bridge-WARNING **: IOR not set.

(gnome-settings-daemon:2850): atk-bridge-WARNING **: AT_SPI_REGISTRY was not started at session startup.

(gnome-settings-daemon:2850): atk-bridge-WARNING **: IOR not set.

(gnome-settings-daemon:2850): atk-bridge-WARNING **: AT_SPI_REGISTRY was not started at session startup.

(gnome-settings-daemon:2850): atk-bridge-WARNING **: IOR not set.

(gnome-settings-daemon:2850): atk-bridge-WARNING **: AT_SPI_REGISTRY was not started at session startup.

(gnome-settings-daemon:2850): atk-bridge-WARNING **: IOR not set.

(gnome-settings-daemon:2850): atk-bridge-WARNING **: AT_SPI_REGISTRY was not started at session startup.

(gnome-settings-daemon:2850): atk-bridge-WARNING **: IOR not set.

(polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1:2859): polkit-gnome-1-WARNING **: Error enumerating temporary authorizations: Remote Exception invoking org.freedesktop.PolicyKit1.Authority.EnumerateTemporaryAuthorizations() on /org/freedesktop/PolicyKit1/Authority at name org.freedesktop.PolicyKit1: org.freedesktop.PolicyKit1.Error.Failed: Cannot determine session the caller is in
gnome-settings-daemon: Fatal IO error 11 (Resource temporarily unavailable) on X server :0.0.
gnome-settings-daemon: Fatal IO error 11 (Resource temporarily unavailable) on X server :0.0.
polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1: Fatal IO error 11 (Resource temporarily unavailable) on X server :0.0.
polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1: Fatal IO error 2 (No such file or directory) on X server :0.0.

There are no files or folders in /var/lib/gdm3.

Contents of working /etc/gdm3/greeter.gconf-defaults:

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# Use a specific background
/desktop/gnome/background/picture_filename	/usr/share/backgrounds/custom/dark_rock_63_Mint_Debian_Green-02_1920x1200.png
/desktop/gnome/background/picture_options	stretched

# Theming options
/desktop/gnome/interface/gtk_theme		Mars
/desktop/gnome/interface/icon_theme		ClearlooksOSX

# Greeter options
/apps/gdm/simple-greeter/logo_icon_name 	debian-swirl

# Play system beeps - especially the one when the greeter is ready
/desktop/gnome/sound/event_sounds		true

# Some other possible options
#/apps/gdm/simple-greeter/banner_message_enable		true
#/apps/gdm/simple-greeter/banner_message_text		Welcome
#/apps/gdm/simple-greeter/disable_restart_buttons	false
#/apps/gdm/simple-greeter/disable_user_list		false

# The lower panel doesn't work with the compositor
/apps/metacity/general/compositing_manager		false

# Prevent the power management icon from showing up
/apps/gnome-power-manager/ui/icon_policy		never

Contents of /etc/gdm3/greeter.gconf-defaults after being overwritten:

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# Use a specific background
/desktop/gnome/background/picture_filename	/usr/share/backgrounds/linuxmint/default_background.jpg
/desktop/gnome/background/picture_options	stretched

# Theming options
/desktop/gnome/interface/gtk_theme		Mint-X
#/desktop/gnome/interface/icon_theme		Mint-X

# Greeter options
#/apps/gdm/simple-greeter/logo_icon_name 	debian-swirl

# Some other possible options
#/apps/gdm/simple-greeter/banner_message_enable		true
#/apps/gdm/simple-greeter/banner_message_text		Welcome
#/apps/gdm/simple-greeter/disable_restart_buttons	false
#/apps/gdm/simple-greeter/disable_user_list		false

# The lower panel doesn't work with the compositor
/apps/metacity/general/compositing_manager		false

Session not being saved, you think?

[oOarthurOo]

Very strange. Nothing too odd in the logs though, mine look similar and mine works. The before and after, assuming you ran the update rc.d command I provided is very odd, very odd indeed. Can you post the output of that script?

/etc/init.d/gdm3

I'm not sure if it's actually called that. At a work computer right now. But "ls" in /etc/init.d will give a list of scripts started on system boot. Just for kicks, also make sure /etc/rc.d is empty and if not post contents.

[doktordave]

First, thanks for helping out. After running invoke-rc.d gdm3 reload as root, I get the following:

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mars gdm3 # invoke-rc.d gdm3 reload
Scheduling reload of GNOME Display Manager configuration: gdm3.

After restarting, I get the same result - my greeter.gconf-defaults file is overwritten by the settings I posted earlier.

There is no /etc/rc.d on this system.

[oOarthurOo]

Sorry, I meant post the contents of /etc/init.d/gdm3

cat /etc/init.d/gdm3

[doktordave]

My fault, wasn't sure.

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#! /bin/sh
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides:          gdm3
# Should-Start:      console-screen dbus network-manager
# Required-Start:    $local_fs $remote_fs
# Required-Stop:     $local_fs $remote_fs
# Default-Start:     2 3 4 5
# Default-Stop:      0 1 6
# Short-Description: GNOME Display Manager
# Description:       Debian init script for the GNOME Display Manager
### END INIT INFO
#
# Author:       Ryan Murray <rmurray@debian.org>
#
set -e

PATH=/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
DAEMON=/usr/sbin/gdm3

test -x $DAEMON || exit 0

if [ -r /etc/default/locale ]; then
  . /etc/default/locale
  export LANG LANGUAGE
fi

. /lib/lsb/init-functions

# To start gdm even if it is not the default display manager, change
# HEED_DEFAULT_DISPLAY_MANAGER to "false."
HEED_DEFAULT_DISPLAY_MANAGER=true
DEFAULT_DISPLAY_MANAGER_FILE=/etc/X11/default-display-manager

gen_config() {
  if [ -d /var/lib/gdm3/.gconf.mandatory ]; then
    update-gconf-defaults \
	--source=/usr/share/gdm/greeter-config \
	--destination=/var/lib/gdm3/.gconf.mandatory \
	--no-signal \
	--only-if-changed
  fi
}

case "$1" in
  start)
        CONFIGURED_DAEMON=$(basename "$(cat $DEFAULT_DISPLAY_MANAGER_FILE 2> /dev/null)")
        if grep -wqs text /proc/cmdline; then
            log_warning_msg "Not starting GNOME Display Manager; found 'text' in kernel commandline."
        elif [ -e "$DEFAULT_DISPLAY_MANAGER_FILE" ] && \
           [ "$HEED_DEFAULT_DISPLAY_MANAGER" = "true" ] && \
           [ "$CONFIGURED_DAEMON" != gdm3 ] ; then
                log_action_msg "Not starting GNOME Display Manager; it is not the default display manager"
        else
                log_daemon_msg "Starting GNOME Display Manager" "gdm3"
                gen_config
                start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile /var/run/gdm3.pid \
			--background --exec $DAEMON || log_end_msg 1
                log_end_msg 0
        fi
  ;;
  stop)
        log_daemon_msg "Stopping GNOME Display Manager" "gdm3"
        set +e
        start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --pidfile /var/run/gdm3.pid \
                --name gdm3 --retry 5
        set -e
        log_end_msg $?
  ;;
  reload)
        log_daemon_msg "Scheduling reload of GNOME Display Manager configuration" "gdm3"
        set +e
        gen_config
        start-stop-daemon --stop --signal USR1 --quiet --pidfile \
                /var/run/gdm3.pid --name gdm3
        start-stop-daemon --stop --signal HUP --quiet --name gconfd-2 \
                --user Debian-gdm --oknodo
        set -e
        log_end_msg $?
  ;;
  status)
        status_of_proc -p "$PIDFILE" "$DAEMON" gdm3 && exit 0 || exit $?
  ;;
  restart|force-reload)
        $0 stop
        $0 start
  ;;
  *)
        echo "Usage: /etc/init.d/gdm3 {start|stop|restart|reload|force-reload|status}"
        exit 1
  ;;
esac

exit 0

[oOarthurOo]

Ok, same as mine. It looks like it copies the files from /usr/share/gdm/greeter-config

Can you post the output of "ls -la" show in /usr/share/gdm/greeter-config

Also, the output of ls-la in /etc/init.d

[doktordave]

Output of "ls -la" in /usr/share/gdm/greeter-config:

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rose@mars /usr/share/gdm/greeter-config $ ls -la
total 32
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root  4096 Nov 30 14:37 .
drwxr-xr-x 6 root root  4096 Nov 28 10:56 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 19192 Aug 11 13:40 10_upstream.entries
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   943 Nov 30 14:37 20_debian

In my case, I replaced the link 20_debian with a file containing my desired gdm3 settings, and for now it works, as stated earlier.

Output of "ls-la" in /etc/init.d:

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rose@mars /etc/init.d $ ls -la
total 424
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root  4096 Dec  4 21:55 .
drwxr-xr-x 135 root root 12288 Dec  7 12:11 ..
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root  2233 Jun 18 08:32 acpid
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root  9651 Oct  4 14:14 alsa-utils
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root  1071 Nov 23  2009 atd
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root  2315 Apr 23  2009 avahi-daemon
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root  1785 Feb 17  2010 binfmt-support
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root  4637 Nov  4 16:42 bluetooth
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root  2444 Jul  3 04:01 bootlogd
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root  1579 Jul  3 04:01 bootlogs
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root  1381 Jul  3 04:01 bootmisc.sh
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root  3978 Jul  3 04:01 checkfs.sh
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root 10822 Aug 10 01:50 checkroot.sh
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root  1279 Mar 28  2010 console-setup
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root  2489 May 15  2010 cpufrequtils
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root  3727 Oct 16 07:20 cron
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root  3016 Nov 12 05:40 cups
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root  2832 Jul 17 08:14 dbus
-rw-r--r--   1 root root  2624 Dec  4 21:55 .depend.boot
-rw-r--r--   1 root root  1595 Dec  4 21:55 .depend.start
-rw-r--r--   1 root root  1022 Dec  4 21:55 .depend.stop
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root  1523 May 26  2010 fancontrol
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root  2909 Jan 31  2010 fuse
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root  2816 Oct  3 16:29 gdm3
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root  2245 Jan 27  2010 hal
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root  1329 Jul  3 04:01 halt
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root  2899 Feb  7  2010 hddtemp
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root 10572 Sep 30 11:38 hdparm
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root  1423 Jul  3 04:01 hostname.sh
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root  5079 Jun 20 12:27 hwclockfirst.sh
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root  5061 Jun 20 12:27 hwclock.sh
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root  2518 Sep 15  2006 ifupdown
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root  1047 Sep  6  2009 ifupdown-clean
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root  7743 Apr 24  2010 kbd
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root  1486 Mar 28  2010 keyboard-setup
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root  1293 Jul  3 04:01 killprocs
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root   687 Oct 28 04:07 live-config
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root   869 May 26  2010 lm-sensors
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root  7143 May 15  2010 loadcpufreq
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root   275 Sep 25 06:04 mintsystem
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root  1334 Jun 27 15:54 module-init-tools
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root   620 Jul  3 04:01 mountall-bootclean.sh
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root  1668 Jul  3 04:01 mountall.sh
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root  1560 Jul  3 04:01 mountdevsubfs.sh
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root  1924 Jul  3 04:01 mountkernfs.sh
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root   628 Jul  3 04:01 mountnfs-bootclean.sh
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root  2330 Jul  3 04:01 mountnfs.sh
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root  1315 Jul  3 04:01 mountoverflowtmp
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root  3649 Jul  3 04:01 mtab.sh
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root  2451 Apr 18  2010 networking
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root  1751 Mar  2  2010 network-manager
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root  1814 Dec 26  2009 ntp
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root  2192 Feb 24  2010 portmap
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root  1349 Jul  5  2009 powernowd
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root   549 Jul 18 16:36 pppd-dns
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root  1298 Jan 31  2010 procps
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root  1901 Jul  3 13:21 pulseaudio
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root  8635 Nov 14 15:31 rc
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root   801 Jul  3 04:01 rc.local
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root   117 Sep  6  2009 rcS
-rw-r--r--   1 root root  2427 May 12  2010 README
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root   639 Jul  3 04:01 reboot
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root  1074 Jul  3 04:01 rmnologin
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root  4399 Feb 17  2010 rsync
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root  3080 Jul  7 13:07 rsyslog
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root  2917 Jul 14 13:40 samba
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root  2348 Apr 22  2010 saned
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root  3286 Jul  3 04:01 sendsigs
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root   590 Jul  3 04:01 single
-rw-r--r--   1 root root  4304 Apr 23  2010 skeleton
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root   567 Jul  3 04:01 stop-bootlogd
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root  1143 Jul  3 04:01 stop-bootlogd-single
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root   551 Jun 10 17:50 sudo
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root  2350 Aug  6 13:16 sysfsutils
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root  7578 Oct 26 17:19 udev
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root  1153 Jun 27 15:06 udev-mtab
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root  2073 Jan 30  2010 ufw
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root  2869 Sep 21 11:26 umountfs
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root  2143 Jul  3 04:01 umountnfs.sh
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root  1456 Jul  3 04:01 umountroot
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root   810 Aug  2 05:07 unattended-upgrades
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root  1985 Jul  3 04:01 urandom
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root 11395 Dec  1 12:21 vboxdrv
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root  8098 Oct  8 16:16 vboxweb-service
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root  1758 May  7  2010 x11-common

Hope this helps.