I have installed Ubuntu V11.10 on yet another friend’s desktop (spreading the Word!) and she wants her favourite picture as the desktop wallpaper.
I have found where the wallpapers are kept - and where I can put her picture (files/usr/share/backgrounds) - and how to select one but I am unable to copy/move the picture from her pictures directory to the */backgrounds directory. The error message says “permission denied” although I have changed all the permissions on the file to “Read/Write”
There’s no need to move it to the system wide wallpaper directory … just put the picture she wants to use in the “Pictures” folder in her “Home” folder (~/Pictures).
Now right-click the desktop, and select “Change Desktop Background”.
In the resulting window, top left you’ll see a drop menu that is probably set to “Wallpapers” with a little arrow next to it … click the arrow and change to “Pictures Folder” … now any pics in her ~/Pictures directory should be visible and selectable
If you REALLY want to move something to a place you don’t have permission to write to … the easiest method would be to open a nautilus window as root:
gksudo nautilus
the resulting nautilus window can now copy stuff anywhere … I must add this is inadvisable unless you’re sure you know what you’re doing, and certainly should be closed as soon as you’ve done whatever you opened it for
@ BkS: Oh, how simple! It works a treat, in Classic View anyway - haven’t tried it in the awful Unity.
@ Mark: If you don’t use Ubuntu now, what do you prefer? I gather Ubuntu is the most popular which is why I went for it as a novice user.
I started using PeppermintOS on my Acer Aspire One netbook because it struggled with the full Gnome/Unity desktop of Ubuntu, and though I still have Ubuntu 11.10 on my desktop, I rarely use it any more, and it will probably be replaced with Peppermint at the first opportunity.
I’ve just fallen in love with the LXDE desktop environment … Peppermint is MUCH lighter/quicker than Ubuntu, but as it’s based on Ubuntu it has access to all the same software.
I think the reason I like Peppermint is it’s a “cloud” distribution, so doesn’t come with a ton of preinstalled local applications … so I saw it as a great “starting point” to only add what I wanted.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not for everyone … it can be harder to set up for certain things than Ubuntu as LXDE doesn’t have some of the helpful GUI tools, so there was a small learning curve involved, but to tell the truth it taught me how some things work “under the hood” as it were which also apply to Ubuntu … such as how .desktop files work.
Great distro, and I love LXDE … but can be harder to tweak.
(but then again, that’s what this forum is for )
