One of the coolest things about being a Linux user can be showing off your slick custom interface to your friends. With the maturing of Grub 2 and kernel mode setting, we’ll soon all have a beautiful boot from start to finish. The step we’re covering today is customizing GDM, the login manager you likely use if you’re running Ubuntu or any other system with Gnome as your desktop. Well those of you who don’t like the Ubuntu brown can brighten up because there’s no shortage of slick GDM themes available for download. Today, we’ll cover where to get them and how to use them.
For info on installing and using the following themes, see the bottom of this page.
Azenis
Arch Dark
Abstract
Black Ice
Dusty
Dark
Antract
Aurora Black
Gnome Zen
Sleek Dragon
DeSk
Pirates of Gnome
Mushroom Lake
Arch Darch
Linux4u-Modernity
Installing Themes
Each of the titles above links to the theme’s download page, or if there’s no page, the theme file itself. All the themes (except DeSk) are tar.gz files and do not need to be extracted manually. In the case of DeSk, the tarball is there but it’s inside a ZIP. You save the tarballs into any directory you choose, and then open the Login Manager which will handle the rest. You can find that in Gnome under System > Administration > Login Window.
Use the Add button to pick your tarball, and you’ll see it show up in the panel to the left. You’ll see your new theme next time you login or switch user.
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impossible to do under Karmic
In Karmic,
gksudo -u gdm dbus-launch gnome-appearance-properties
Captain Canuck: All that does is show the standard appearance properties window. There’s no option there to change the login theme, AFAIK.
hey!
love the selection, unfortunately, I do have to agree with Yonathan Amir, it seems to be impossible to do under Karmic, with the new Xsplash and all (which sucks, apart from being a little faster….so much lost!). GKsudo’ing it just gives you the standard appearance window, altought with the “root” theme.
if you have any more idea on how to do it, it would be greatly appreciated. And while at it, if you can figure out how to restore the Xdhcp, been trying with the config file, but no luck!
hope they go back to usplash next time.
cheers,
D4
Hey,
I am using Ubuntu 9.10. I don’t have the login window option in it. Do I have to go to startup manager and then add Usplash theme from there?
Karmic users can downgrade their GDM to the previous release so all of this works again. I did that too because the inability to customize my login screen was disturbing me a lot.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=8350408&postcount=2
You *can* use these on Karmic by removing gdm-2.28 and replacing it with gdm-2.20.
However it’s not a job for the faint-hearted. I managed to trash my X server in the process…
Damn ! So I can’t get any themes on ubuntu 9.10 ?
Hi
So this is a wind up then for most of us!
Really nice themes but only if you have a computer degree in Linux(!)
and are prepared to hose your system.
I’m now convinced some of these site are run by Microsoft!
Nice one guys
Bob
Works on every distro other than a specific version of Ubuntu, and that version can (apparently) be safely downgraded.
I followed Scorp123′s instructions… Five minutes later I was back to 2.20.
Thanks Scorp
Hey… I tried following scorps instructions too… but when i press ctrl+alt+f2… i get the black screen… but i cant type any thing in it.
Did that happen for you ?
So for the many ubuntu users out there who have a newer version of the OS, we can’t get any of this bling?
Aryamaan Giri,
The tutorial does not apply to Ubuntu 9.10 as this latest version of Ubuntu uses a new security model which does not allow for custom GDM themes of this type
Whats the rationale for this new security model?
Can you provide a link since I can’t see how these themes can be a security issue.
Captain Canuck was right with his first comment.
gksudo -u gdm dbus-launch gnome-appearance-properties
gnome-appearance-properties run as gdm will let you change many aspects of the new login. It’s just that the gdm no longer uses a separate theme engine (Speculation), so the old themes no longer work.
you can change the color scheme, the backround, and the icons easily. as far as the login window placement and the loading logo goes i haven’t looked into it.
i dunno what the harm is in downgrading, but this new style works fine for me.