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How can I get a monochrome desktop background?

The context menu on the desktop background contains "Change background..." accessing the Settings section "Background".

I can select one of multiple images as background, and can also add additional pictures.

But I would like to make the background show a single solid color.
Ideally I would like to be able to select this color.

How to set the background color of the desktop?

I do not see UI to do that, and also no UI elements to discover the option in other places of the UI.

(It irritates me, because it is a feature that suggests itself.)

See Ubuntu 20.04 change background to solid colour on how to do it manually.

Volker Siegel
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  • since last few versions of GNOME, removed that feature. You can set it via dconf editor or cli but I think you already knew it. And you want to achieve it with mouse only. – PRATAP Mar 27 '21 at 15:55
  • https://askubuntu.com/a/1272130/739431 https://askubuntu.com/a/1190111/739431 – PRATAP Mar 27 '21 at 15:57
  • @WinEunuuchs2Unix No, that basically shows how to implement it manually. – Volker Siegel Mar 27 '21 at 17:12
  • @UnKNOWn It was removed? Are you serious? – Volker Siegel Mar 27 '21 at 17:13
  • Yeah, I myself was very stubborn and through tinkering in the dconf-editor app (graphic interface for interacting with the gsettings API), so I was tinkering with it left and right and could somehow make it forget about the bitmap image and use a hex color value, but there was some side-effect, I don't remember what. (Ok, maybe I remember, the logs were polluted with an error that it does not find the background image...) In a nutshell, I gave up, have saved a stupid png file with a flat color in it and set it as background. Actually works. What can one do. – Levente Mar 27 '21 at 17:17
  • Yes the option to choose plain colors.. Removed since 19.10 Versions.. – PRATAP Mar 27 '21 at 17:17
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    Create images with each desired color. Add them as "additional pictures". Select one. – waltinator Mar 27 '21 at 17:17
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    Just wait until you learn that there is no way in hell to set the lock screen background color for something else than a darkened variant of your normal background color. It kills me every. day. I have became addicted to this site and earned 1300 points throughout 3 months; I have learnt my ass off about Ubuntu, including how to manipulate the gnome-shell code just because how hostile the gnome-shell user experience feels. And I still don't have a lockscreen that would be different than an uglier, muddier variant of my normal grey background color. – Levente Mar 27 '21 at 17:32
  • @Levente I've used the Unity desktop for years. I've tried the Gnome desktop a few times but always go back to Ubuntu's Unity desktop where such problems as this thread details simply don't exist as Unity was written to compensate for Gnome's short-comings in the first place. That said at the end of the day all I'm looking for is a stable editor to write software, a bash/shell and a web-browser to access sites like this one. – WinEunuuchs2Unix Mar 27 '21 at 21:30
  • @VolkerSiegel you said "No, that basically shows how to implement it manually". So you want the desktop to change to a solid color by reading your mind at the moment you visualize a solid color? I'm sure that's not what you meant so could you elaborate on what is wrong with manually setting a colored background? – WinEunuuchs2Unix Mar 27 '21 at 22:22
  • @WinEunuuchs2Unix Yes, I have found 16.04's Unity very much lovable and am incredibly happy (especially in retrospect) that I could enjoy 4 years with it. But now I seem to have the impression that the Unity desktop is not maintained any more: I heard accounts of increasing number of bugs, and am concerned about regularly released security patches. Do you know anything about this? – Levente Mar 27 '21 at 23:04
  • @Levente As far as I know security updates and bug fixes are released by the Linux Kernel team which is interdependent of Ubuntu. Unity may have come out on 14.04 or 16.04 but is still there for 18.04 and 20.04. It was just that on 18.04 and 20.04 Gnome was the default for new installs. – WinEunuuchs2Unix Mar 28 '21 at 00:25
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    Update: I seem to have learned how to keep the background-color intact on the lock screen. – Levente Apr 07 '21 at 15:09
  • @WinEunuuchs2Unix I was thinking of a GUI way to do it. Something I can point somebody not so used to computers as we are to. – Volker Siegel Apr 09 '21 at 05:08

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