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desktop customization

How to Change the Wallpaper in Ubuntu Desktop

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On Ubuntu Desktop with GNOME, press the Super key, search for Appearance, open it, and choose a background under Background. Select Add Picture… to use your own image. The wallpaper changes immediately.

These steps apply to the standard Ubuntu Desktop experience, including current 24.04 LTS and 26.04 documentation. Other Ubuntu flavors use different desktop environments and menus.

Change the wallpaper through Settings

  1. Press the Super key (usually the Windows key).
  2. Search for Appearance and open it.
  3. Under Background, select one of Ubuntu’s included wallpapers.
  4. For a personal image, click Add Picture….
  5. Browse to the image, select it, and confirm.

The file chooser commonly opens the Pictures folder first. Ubuntu applies the selection immediately. Labels can vary slightly by release, language, theme, or customized installation. See the Ubuntu Desktop Help instructions.

Set an image directly from Files

  1. Open Files.
  2. Find the image you want to use.
  3. Right-click it.
  4. Choose Set as Background….

This shortcut is useful for a downloaded image because it avoids opening Appearance. If the command is missing, check that the file is an image recognized by your desktop and that you are using Ubuntu Desktop’s GNOME-based session.

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Set the wallpaper from Image Viewer

Open the image in Image Viewer, open its title-bar menu, and choose Set as Background…. The icon and menu placement can differ between Image Viewer versions, but the command is provided by the application’s menu.

Choose how the image fits the screen

If the image is cropped, surrounded by borders, or distorted, change the picture position in Appearance. GNOME supports the modes below; the exact control wording can vary. The usual default is zoom, which fills the screen while preserving the aspect ratio, so some edges may be cropped.

Mode Best for Typical result
Zoom Most photographs Fills the screen without distortion; edges may be cropped.
Scaled Seeing the whole image Preserves the complete image; empty space or borders may remain.
Centered Small artwork or pixel art Keeps the image near its original size in the center.
Stretched Exact screen coverage when distortion is acceptable Fills the display but can change the image’s proportions.
Spanned One panoramic image across multiple monitors Places the image across the combined monitor layout; framing depends on monitor geometry.
Wallpaper Repeating patterns Tiles the image.

Ubuntu documents these values in its picture-options reference. On multi-monitor systems, try Zoom, Scaled, and Spanned because different resolutions, scaling factors, and monitor arrangements can change the result.

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Change the wallpaper from Terminal

For a GNOME session, use the org.gnome.desktop.background GSettings schema. Replace USERNAME and the filename with the real path:

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gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri 
  "file:///home/USERNAME/Pictures/wallpaper.jpg"

To set the image used when Ubuntu is in dark appearance mode, set the separate dark URI:

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri-dark 
  "file:///home/USERNAME/Pictures/wallpaper.jpg"

To change the fitting mode:

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background picture-options 'zoom'
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background picture-options 'scaled'
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background picture-options 'centered'
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background picture-options 'stretched'
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background picture-options 'spanned'

Check the current values with:

gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri
gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri-dark
gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.background picture-options

These commands change the current user’s settings. Run them in a terminal inside that user’s graphical login, not as root, over a text console, or from an unrelated SSH session. GSettings normally needs the session’s D-Bus bus; GNOME documents this requirement in its GSettings guide. A file:// URI is required rather than a plain shell path. Spaces and special characters may need URI encoding, so the graphical picker is safer for complex filenames.

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Why dark mode can show a different image

Ubuntu can store separate light- and dark-mode background URIs. If you change only picture-uri, switching to dark appearance may still display the image stored in picture-uri-dark. The two keys are described in the Ubuntu background policy reference.

Desktop wallpaper and lock screen are separate

Changing the desktop background does not necessarily change the lock-screen image. GNOME stores the lock-screen shield separately under org.gnome.desktop.screensaver.picture-uri. Administrators and advanced users can consult GNOME’s lock-screen shield documentation; ordinary users should first change the desktop background through Appearance.

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Troubleshoot wallpaper changes

Appearance or Background is missing

  • Confirm that you are running Ubuntu Desktop, not Ubuntu Server without a graphical desktop.
  • Open Settings → System → About and check the Ubuntu version under Operating System. From a terminal, lsb_release --description reports the release.
  • If the interface is Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Lubuntu, Ubuntu MATE, or another flavor, use that desktop’s own appearance settings.
  • Try right-clicking the image in Files as an alternative.

Ubuntu’s release documentation lists the supported desktop guides at help.ubuntu.com.

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The wallpaper is black, blank, or unchanged

  • Verify the file exists and that the URI is spelled correctly.
  • Make sure a removable drive containing the image is connected when you log in.
  • Run the GSettings command from the same graphical account whose desktop you are viewing.
  • Check whether a startup script, customization utility, or organization-managed policy resets the setting.
  • On Ubuntu 26.04 in VirtualBox or VMware, Ubuntu’s release notes identify a configuration-specific issue where GTK 4 applications, including the wallpaper, may render incorrectly when 3D acceleration is enabled. See the 26.04 release notes.

The wallpaper changes but reverts after login

Common causes are changing a different user’s desktop, a policy that locks the dconf keys, a reset script, or an image stored on unavailable removable media. GNOME’s dconf lockdown documentation explains how administrators can prevent changes.

Administrators: set a system-wide default

For managed installations, GNOME supports a dconf keyfile such as:

[org/gnome/desktop/background]
picture-uri='file:///usr/local/share/backgrounds/wallpaper.jpg'
picture-options='scaled'

After installing the keyfile in the system dconf database, run:

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sudo dconf update

Users may need to log out and back in. Locking keys such as /org/gnome/desktop/background/picture-uri prevents users from overriding the administrator’s choice. This is an administrative configuration, not a requirement for a normal personal Ubuntu installation. See GNOME’s guides for custom backgrounds and custom default values.

Why not use feh on Ubuntu GNOME?

Although feh can set wallpapers for some window managers, Ubuntu’s manpage notes that it does not support setting the wallpaper of GNOME Shell desktops. Use Appearance, Files, Image Viewer, or GNOME’s gsettings schema instead. Reference: Ubuntu’s feh manpage.

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