Dec 19

How to find the path of the image currently used as Ubuntu desktop wallpaper

Category: Linux,Ubuntu   — Published by goeszen on December 19, 2014 at 10:05 pm

Recently, I wanted to find out where the file I was currently using as GNOME/Unity Ubuntu desktop wallpaper - as it had been quite some time since I've selected it, and wanted to move somethings around my system, without breaking stuff, or accidentally deleting the background image I was using.

First, I tried the GUI System-Settings tab, only to find that it didn't show the current file used, at all!
A bit of research online, and I found an interesting difference between Ubuntu versions which might be helpful for others to know:

Up until Ubuntu 10.10 you would ask gconf on command-line to echo the current value:

gconftool-2 -g /desktop/gnome/background/picture_filename

At least, this is what you can read here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1372996
But, since Ubuntu 11.04 it is

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

This is handy to know. Now, in order to change this value, to change the current background desktop wallpaper, simply replace get with set and you can update/change the gsettings value.

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