Bash: GDM wallpaper

Question

Hi there. I thought it'd only take 5 minutes to write a simple script that sets the gdm background to that of the desktop but I obviously don't know enough Bash.
I assume others would find it useful too & I'd like to know what I'm doing wrong.
#!/bin/sh
#simple script to set gdm background to current wallpaper
#intended use: enter path to script in /etc/rc.local.shutdown
#default background dir:
DIR="/usr/share/pixmaps/backgrounds/gnome"
echo $DIR
#if original exists, move it - ie. 1st use..
MD5=`md5sum "$DIR"/background-default.jpg | cut -d" " -f 1`
#echo $MD5
MD5SUM='30dff4ca8f5d156c77acd9c5bd3feb45'
ORIG=`test "$MD5" = "$MD5SUM"; echo $?`
#echo $ORIG
#WHY CAN I NOT JUST DO: if [$MD5 = $MD5SUM]; ??
if (($ORIG == 0)); then
mv "$DIR"/background-default.jpg "$DIR"/nature/
fi
#find current wallpaper
LOC=`gconftool-2 -g /desktop/gnome/background/picture_filename`
echo $LOC
#create symlink
#ln -sf "$LOC" "$DIR"/background-default.jpg // WHY DOESN'T THIS WORK, WHERE LINE BELOW DOES?
ln -sf /home/ahaslam/images/wallpapers/01943_bluesunrise_1024x600.jpg /usr/share/pixmaps/backgrounds/gnome/background-default.jpg
Cheers.

Answer 1

I don't think GDM uses the system default background. Look at the wiki for how to configure GDM properly. On the other hand, you could use this script I wrote to configure it:
#!/bin/bash
if [ -z "$1" -o -n "$2" ]; then
echo "Usage: $0 user"
exit 1
fi
IFS=$'\n'
folders=('/apps/gdm/simple-greeter' '/apps/metacity/general' '/desktop/gnome/background' '/desktop/gnome/font_rendering' '/desktop/gnome/interface')
for folder in "${folders[@]}"; do
for line in $(su -c "gconftool-2 -a '$folder'" "$1"); do
key="$(expr "$line" : ' \(.\+\) = .*')"
value="$(expr "$line" : '.* = \(.\+\)')"
type="$(su -c "gconftool-2 -T '$folder/$key' 2> /dev/null" "$1")"
case "$type" in
bool|float|int|string)
sudo -u gdm gconftool-2 --set --type "$type" --set "$folder/$key" "$value"
esac
done
done
it should be run as root with your username as the first argument, and it also configures the widget theme, metacity settings etc
Last edited by PirateJonno (2010-02-19 00:39:38)