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I have GNOME3 on Debian and cannot for the life of me figure out how to customize the login screen, either background or box itself. Thoughts? I'm good with the terminal :P
Also, Compiz does not do anything, even when enabled... Wobbly windows don't work :'(
tekknolagi
Posted 2011-11-30T07:15:56.463
Reputation: 1 130
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I had the same problem. I didn't much look into customizing it in Gnome, because I knew I liked the KDM login screen. If you install KDM, you can set that as your desktop manager, and then download themes to use with it or create your own theme. It's been a while since I did this, so I can't remember the exact commands, but I'll pull up my desktop on my phone and figure out what they are.
Okay, you'll need to run sudo apt-get groupinstall "KDE Software Compilation" to install KDE. This will install the KDM you want to use, as well as allow you to load KDE to chenge the KDM options. Then you'll need to edit /etc/sysconfig/desktop (or create the file if it's not there) to include the lines
DESKTOP="KDE"
DISPLAYMANAGER="KDE"
Then reboot, and it'll use KDM instead of GDM! The first time you do it, you may have to tell it to use Gnome instead of KDE. I can't remember whether I had to or not. You can download KDM themes here, and then load KDE to change which one you are using.
Please see my comment for another method which I haven't tested, but is probably better.
SaintWacko
Posted 2011-11-30T07:15:56.463
Reputation: 1 482
yum won't do anything on #!, it's a debian based distro and uses apt – Rob – 2011-11-30T18:35:54.057
Alternatively, you can instead run sudo apt-get install kdm, then download a theme, unpack it, move it to /usr/share/apps/kdm/themes/, then edit /etc/kde3/kdm/kdmrc to make the line Theme=(themepath) point to the new theme. I haven't done this, but it should work. I wish I had done it that way, as then I wouldn't have to go through and get rid of all the KDE applications -.- – SaintWacko – 2011-11-30T18:39:28.093
Oh, oops. Guess I'll look up the apt commands and fix my answer :D – SaintWacko – 2011-11-30T18:40:34.317
I just got rid of gdm and started using .xinit. Feels good man. – Rob – 2011-11-30T18:45:17.710
What are the benefits of using .xinit over a display manager? – SaintWacko – 2011-11-30T18:49:58.197
Just one less thing to load. I'm the only user on my computer, and #! is supposed to be (and is) a pretty lightweight distro. GDM's autologin doesn't work quite right with #! for some reason, so I switched to none of them with some help from the #! forums and irc. – Rob – 2011-11-30T19:06:14.057
This is a fairly bad idea I think - you don't need installs of 2 desktop environments, it's a real waste of space. – Simon Sheehan – 2011-11-30T20:28:20.437
I realized that, which is why I pointed out an alternate method of only installing KDM. When I did it on my computer, it was before I knew enough to be able to set the theme from a file, so I thought I needed KDE to change it. – SaintWacko – 2011-11-30T20:30:17.407
can I keep gdm? – tekknolagi – 2011-12-01T02:42:17.297
Yes, you can switch back to GDM at any time by replacing KDE with GNOME. Sorry, I was on here at work earlier, and forgot to pull it up when I got home. – SaintWacko – 2011-12-01T05:57:41.583
Did this do what you wanted? – SaintWacko – 2011-12-05T22:59:31.337
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Hit ALT + F2 and enter gksudo gdmsetup into the box. You can change your theme from here.
Rob
Posted 2011-11-30T07:15:56.463
Reputation: 2 152
Nope, this window comes up different. – tekknolagi – 2011-12-01T02:42:02.463
Hmm, something weird with your set up for sure, you should be able to use gdmsetup to change the theme, it's under the LOCAL tab. The default is called "CrunchBang Statler". If you recently downloaded and installed #! though, you aren't using gdm, but are using SLiM instead. – Rob – 2011-12-01T04:42:57.460
I recently installed gnome-desktop which removed gdm i believe... – tekknolagi – 2011-12-01T04:47:57.067
Yeah, that does remove GDM. Edit your question to ask about gnome and change #! to debian, since you aren't really using #! default gdm anymore. – Rob – 2011-12-01T13:28:59.960
1I'll have an answer for you when I get home and onto my #! box. Are you using the new image with SLiM (Just came out recently) or the older image with gdm? I assume gdm since it's tagged that way. I'm not sure if compiz would work with openbox or xfce, which is what #! statler comes with (the new one is only openbox) – Rob – 2011-11-30T18:17:16.647
@Rob I think I... removed gdm and installed GNOME... – tekknolagi – 2011-12-01T02:42:59.310
Xfce? Not sure. – tekknolagi – 2011-12-01T02:43:12.353
gdm is the login screen for gnome. You can't use compiz effects without changing the window manager to compiz. – Rob – 2011-12-01T04:41:06.570
@Rob i did that, and even so... :-/ – tekknolagi – 2011-12-01T05:05:09.197