Set custom background

You can change the default desktop background to one that you want to use. For example, you may want to use a background with your company or university logo instead of the default GNOME background.

Set the default background

  1. Create the user profile which contains the following lines:

    /etc/dconf/profile/user

    user-db:user
system-db:local

    local is the name of a dconf database.

  2. Create the directory /etc/dconf/db/local.d/ if it does not already exist.

  3. Create the key file /etc/dconf/db/local.d/00-background to provide information for the local database.

    /etc/dconf/db/local.d/00-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:
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'

  4. To prevent the user from overriding these settings, create the file /etc/dconf/db/local.d/locks/background with the following content:

    /etc/dconf/db/local.d/locks/background

    # Lock desktop background settings
/org/gnome/desktop/background/picture-uri
/org/gnome/desktop/background/picture-options
/org/gnome/desktop/background/primary-color
/org/gnome/desktop/background/secondary-color

  5. Update the system databases:

    # dconf update

  6. Users must log out and back in again before the system-wide settings take effect.