Changing the Linux Mint Login Background Images

Linux Mint Login ScreenNewer versions of Linux Mint use MintX as the default login screen greeter. By default it comes with a predefined collection of images. These display in the background and change periodically in a slide show type format.

The default images are great but I wanted to add a personal touch to my system and change them to some of my own photos.

Here I will run you through the process of changing MintX to use images of your choosing.

Getting Started

First create a directory for the new images to live in:

sudo mkdir /usr/share/backgrounds/custom/

Now using sudo, copy some images on the systems that you would like to use as backgrounds into the newly created directory i.e

sudo cp ~/Documents/Pictures/my_photo.jpg /usr/share/backgrounds/custom/

Edit the MintX slide show configuration file:

sudo nano /usr/share/mdm/html-themes/Mint-X/slideshow.conf

Scroll down past the heading [backgrounds] and delete all of the default entries. Then add in some pointing to the images you copied over i.e

file:///usr/share/backgrounds/custom/my_photo.jpg
file:///usr/share/backgrounds/custom/another_photo.jpg
file:///usr/share/backgrounds/custom/swesome_background.jpg

When your done save your changes, and logout. You should now see your custom images that you add being used as the background at the login prompt.

5 thoughts on “Changing the Linux Mint Login Background Images

  1. Raymond Danner

    Attempted this (the editing of the slideshow.conf file) and it /did not/ work. Still a blank screen (other than the controls and login window). Perhaps in Linux Mint 18.0, one (or more?) of the header commands are misspelt? Still tinkering with it.

  2. Dsiak

    I’m having issues with Mint 18.0, the login screen shows a blank background, while if you wait for the computer to go on stand-by or see the preview for Mint-X in the Login Screen Editor it shows my custom image. Anyone else?

  3. john

    “AAAAAAAAAWWWWWH YOU DA MAN” : )

    Simple and clear, precise steps, could’nt have been better, this has been bugging me for some time, and i have used all flavours of Linux, for the past 10 years, but always come back to Mint as its arguably the easiest, stable, flexible Distro around.

    ThAnX : )

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *