How to set gtk-style and background in GDM3

Question

I'm triyng to set a different GTk-theme and background for GDM3 (using ubuntu 11.04 and GNOME3 PPA).

As far As I have seen, the GTK-theme used by gdm is exactly the one stored into Gsettings > org.gnome.desktop

So, exactly as I do as another user, I tried executing

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface gtk-theme Adwaita 

from a shell with gdm logged user.

The problem is that it does not change the value of the key into gsettings.

How do I get that gdm can change gsettings keys' values?

Answer 1

This has something to do with Xauth.... Actually running

xhost +SI:localuser:gdm

as root (or as admin account) let gdm accept gsettings set commands

Actually the solution for setting gtk-theme or background is

1. as root (or admin account) xhost +SI:localuser:gdm
2. as root (or admin account) sudo su gdm -s /bin/bash
3. as gdm execute in sequence

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface gtk-theme GTK3_THEME

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface icon-theme ICON_THEME

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface cursor-theme CURSOR_THEME

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri 'file://FILE'

for example:

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri 'file:////usr/share/backgrounds/JardinPolar_by_CarmenGloria_Gonzalez.jpg'

Another important thing to check is that gdm has rw permissions to its home folder, i.e. /var/lib/gdm

!!!IMPORTANT!!! exit to exit from being logged in as gdm followed by

xhost -SI:localuser:gdm as root or admin user after setting above parameters to deny access to gdm (otherwise it may create problems)