Change the login screen background and icon on Ubuntu 10.10

In the newer versions of Ubuntu there is no option to directly set backgroud for the login screen. After a bit of googling I found an working technique.

1. Find and move your wallpaper in the directory with background (keep the format JPG)

> sudo mv ~/your-wallpaper-name.jpg /usr/share/backgrounds

2. With the next command we activate the appearance settings window to appear on login screen

> sudo cp /usr/share/applications/gnome-appearance-properties.desktop /usr/share/gdm/autostart/LoginWindow

3. Close the terminal and Log out. On the login screen you'll see Appearance settings window.
4. Choose your wallpaper.
5. The background changes right after you select the picture. Confirm changes and Log in.
6. Open the terminal and deactivate Appearance settings window with command:

> sudo unlink /usr/share/gdm/autostart/LoginWindow/gnome-appearance-properties.desktop

 

Change the icon displayed on login screen:

The icon is placed under: /usr/share/icons/LoginIcons/apps/64

File name: computer.svg

To change it, just replace the existing one. Again beware of the correct picture format and resolution!