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I run a high school computer science lab with 17 desktops running Ubuntu 16.04 with the standard Unity desktop rather than Gnome.

The users log in with Windows Active directory IDs and have standard user privileges. They do not have access to the root account and are not able to sudo.

Is there anyway of preventing them changing the desktop background or restricting the choice to the standard Ubuntu backgrounds shown in the settings menu? The previous answers I have found refer to the Gnome desktop rather than Unity and refer to previous versions of Ubuntu.

I tried to apply the advice given by @rinzwind and followed the instructions on the linked dconf System Administrator Guide.

I made a directory: /etc/dconf/db/local.d/locks

I made a file called screens with the following content.

[org/gnome/desktop/background]
picture-uri='file=path to my background'

With my intended default wallpaper on the second line.

I ran sudo dconf update and rebooted but there is no change.

Does this method also work in 16.04 running Unity?

Simon Baldwin
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  • Use the lock down feature of dconf: see https://askubuntu.com/a/124463/15811 – Rinzwind May 03 '18 at 12:20
  • Offer a bounty on the other post; updating answers are a standard bounty reason. – muru May 03 '18 at 15:25
  • Could you please add a little more detail? What exactly did you do, what did you expect to happen and what happened instead? Did you encounter any warning or error messages? Please reproduce them in their entirety in your question. You can select, copy and paste terminal content and most dialogue messages in Ubuntu. Please [edit] your post to add information instead of posting a comment. (see How do I ask a good question?) – David Foerster May 04 '18 at 05:59
  • I have edited the question as requested. – Simon Baldwin May 06 '18 at 15:58
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    I made a complete and working answer there https://askubuntu.com/a/1034238/350004 – solsTiCe May 10 '18 at 09:45

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