How do I set up a background image for console?

Question

Some of you may know this from openSUSE. There the console is able to have a background. Is Ubuntu also able to have a background image outside the X-Windows system?

Answer 1

Install FBTerm to have a colored Background image on console

Compile fbv - FrameBufferViewer

First of all you need to compile fbv to be able to print the background image to fbterm.

To prepare this go to your console and enter

sudo apt-get install build-essential checkinstall make

Next we need to obtain the fbv source. You can get it from the author's website

Now extract the source with

tar xfv fbv-1.0b.tar.gz

go to the directory and then type ./configure.

as you see there are some dependencies

• libungif
• libjpeg and
• libpng

it's a bit complicated to locate them on Ubuntu. Just enter:

sudo apt-get install lipungif lipjpeg-dev libpng12-dev

Now you are ready to compile fbv "Framebuffer Viewer". Enter ./configure again.

now enter

sudo checkinstall

Enter Y for the question after documentation files.

Now enter Framebuffer Viewer and hit return once more.

enter 3 to change the version string to `1.0b' hit return

enter 10 to specify dependencies in a comma separated list. These are the libs named above

libungif.libjpeg,-dev,libpng12-dev

now you can confirm the rest of the prompts with return.

Well done, you've compiled fbv from the source and installed it to your system.

But we like to install FbTerm so this will be the next step

Install FBTerm and setup a background image

First we simple install the fbterm package with apt-get

sudo apt-get install fbterm

To grant access to VESA for fbterm we need to add the user to the video group as explained above. So we need to enter

sudo usermod -a -G video $USER

Now we need to create a shell script that starts fbterm and setup a background image for us. See FBTerm Man Pages. As you can see this is the part of the installation that needs fbv.

Copy and paste the bash script to a new text file or just rewrite the lines and save it with nano.

For example you can save it to /etc/fbterm.

To make sure it is executable chmod it with

sudo chmod 755 /etc/fbterm

The effect of this script is if you go to /etc and enter ./fbterm path of image, fbterm will start and show up with the given background image.

If you try it you'll notice that fbterm prints an error message about the keymap and not given privileges. This is because fbterm has no root access yet.

To avoid this we'll need to set up another sh script.

The good part of this second script is you could specify a background image in here. But let's take a look.

#!/bin/sh
# This gives fbterm access to change the keymap
setcap 'cap_sys_tty_config+ep' /usr/bin/fbterm
/etc/fbterm ~/Pictures/background.png
cd
exit

Now we will chmod this script too

sudo chmod 755 /init.d/fbterm

For now I'm not sure if the script works completely. Enter

sudo setcap 'cap_sys_tty_config+ep' /usr/bin/fbterm

to make it really sure

Start FBTerm right after login

Finally we need to start FBTerm with the given background image right after the user is successfully logged in. so we have to edit .profile in the user's homedir.

Go to your homedir with cd ~ and enter nano .profile

finally add the line

sh /etc/init.d/fbterm

below the last commentary.

Well done! Now you can see your image at console if you log back in