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Customize the default desktop background

You can configure the default desktop background and its appearance by setting the relevant GSettings keys in the org.gnome.desktop.background schema.

Set the default background

  1. Create a local database for machine-wide settings in /etc/dconf/db/local.d/01-background: 

    # Specify the dconf path
[org/gnome/desktop/background]

# Specify the path to the desktop background image file
picture-uri='file:///usr/local/share/backgrounds/wallpaper.jpg'
# Specify one of the rendering options for the background image:
# 'none', 'wallpaper', 'centered', 'scaled', 'stretched', 'zoom', 'spanned'
picture-options='scaled'
# Specify the left or top color when drawing gradients, or the solid color
primary-color='000000'
# Specify the right or bottom color when drawing gradients
secondary-color='FFFFFF'

  2. Override the user's setting and prevent the user from changing it in /etc/dconf/db/local.d/locks/background:

    # List the keys used to configure the desktop background
/org/gnome/desktop/background/picture-uri
/org/gnome/desktop/background/picture-options
/org/gnome/desktop/background/primary-color
/org/gnome/desktop/background/secondary-color

  3. Update the system databases:

    # dconf update