Changing the Background Image for SDDM Login in KDE Plasma on Kubuntu 24.04
In this article, we will explain how to change the background image for the Simple Desktop Display Manager (SDDM) login screen in KDE Plasma on Kubuntu 24.04. We will provide detailed instructions and cover the key concepts involved in customizing the login screen.
What is SDDM?
SDDM is a display manager that is commonly used in KDE Plasma-based distributions such as Kubuntu. It provides a graphical login interface for users to enter their credentials and access the system. By default, SDDM uses a simple and clean theme, but it can be customized to display a different background image or to use a custom theme.
Finding the SDDM Configuration File
To change the background image for the SDDM login screen, we need to edit the SDDM configuration file. This file is typically located at /usr/share/sddm/themes/breeze/theme.conf. To edit this file, we can use a text editor like nano, vim, or gedit.
sudo gedit /usr/share/sddm/themes/breeze/theme.conf
This will open the SDDM configuration file in a text editor. We can now locate the line that sets the background image.
Changing the Background Image
The line that sets the background image in the SDDM configuration file looks like this:
background=/usr/share/wallpapers/Kay/contents/images_dark/5120x2880.png
To change the background image, we simply need to replace the path to the current image with the path to the new image. For example, if we want to use the image located at /usr/share/wallpapers/my-wallpaper.png, we would change the line to read:
background=/usr/share/wallpapers/my-wallpaper.png
After making this change, we can save the file and restart the SDDM service to apply the new background image.
Restarting SDDM
To restart the SDDM service, we first need to switch to a different terminal or use the Ctrl + Alt + F2 key combination to open a virtual console. We can then use the following command to stop the SDDM service:
sudo systemctl stop sddm
After stopping the SDDM service, we can start it again using the following command:
sudo systemctl start sddm
This will restart the SDDM service and apply the new background image. We can now switch back to the graphical interface using the Ctrl + Alt + F1 key combination.
- SDDM is a display manager used in KDE Plasma-based distributions
- The SDDM configuration file is located at
/usr/share/sddm/themes/breeze/theme.conf - To change the background image, edit the
backgroundline in the configuration file - Restart the SDDM service to apply the new background image
References
- SDDM documentation: https://github.com/sddm/sddm/wiki
- KDE Plasma documentation: https://docs.kde.org/trunk5/en/plasma/