How to change cursor and accent color on login screen (GDM)?

Since the latest update (Manjaro/GNOME/Wayland) in December 2022 and also with fresh installations of Manjaro 22, the accent color and cursor theme diverts from the desktop settings (GNOME). I can change cursor theme and accent color for the desktop by means of GNOME-Optimization and the extension Custom-Accent-Colors, but not for the login screen (GDM).

Since the Manjaro-Team was able to change it, there must be a way to do it. The gdm-settings app does not provide any options for GDM accent colors nor cursor theme. So, what is the trick to change it?

1 Like

Of course there is a way.
But, with Gnome and it’s easy to use, no need to configure stuff approach
this can be a daunting task for anyone. :wink:

GDM - ArchWiki

However, there is a tool mentioned, right at the start:
gdm-settings (an AUR package)
which can apparently greatly assist you with what is rather easy with other display managers.

I do not know it - and things like this lead to me abandoning Gnome, which I used to love. (rant over)

Good luck!

I’m Brazilian, so first excuse my bad English (google translate).

And also that it’s been over a decade since I’ve known what Gnome is on my machines

However I’ll try to show you a “possible way to look” which is something like:
" /etc/gdm/gdm.conf"

Which in my case that I use Plasma is:

I’m sorry I can’t recommend it to you, but I think it’s already a start.

T+ = See you later

unfortunately, that is not the way to do it with gdm
see section 3.2.2 in the linked Arch wiki
although, with the help of this guide, it is rather easy

GDM uses the default hard-coded gnome-shell theme which is by default blue. With gnome-shell-maia, you probably noticed it uses Manjaro Maia coloring. There’s no way to change the accent color without recompiling gnome-shell with the color changes.

For the cursor theme used with GDM, edit /usr/share/icons/default/index.theme:

[Icon Theme]
Inherits=Bibata-Modern-Classic

Unfortunately, this does absolutely nothing for me.

But the same is true for the method outlined in the Arch wiki - and the tool gdm-settings also doesn’t achieve a different cursor theme.

It doesn’t matter to me - and I’ll not continue exploring this because, as I said, I left Gnome for precisely these kinds of little things that seem so simple but are often only frustrating.
I only have it in a VM to see and test …

I hope it works for the OP!

What does absolutely nothing? Did you reboot after? :thinking:

Everything I mentioned does indeed work.

editing /usr/share/icons/default/index.theme

If it works, the OP will be happy.

although I should not have to - stopping and starting gdm should do it, I thought - but yes, I did reboot

Perhaps I’ll re try it later - I sure will come back to apologize to you here. :vulcan_salute:

Conclusion:

This command does change the GDM cursor theme:
sudo -u gdm dbus-launch gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface cursor-theme ‘Adwaita’

There is no way to change the GDM accent color without recompiling GNOME-Shell.

1 Like

Excuse me, I showed “the way of the stones” it was enough to change addresses from ‘Plasma’(sddm) to ‘Gnome’(gdm) and more as the friend said above

That is:

Sorry I didn’t help you

Best regards,
Paulo Creto

T+ = See you later

1 Like