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QI want to place my own custom wallpapers in the /usr/share/ backgrounds folder and have them available from the default range. Unfortunately, regardless of all my attempts, including changing permissions and ownership with sudo or su , these wallpapers are still not available from the folder. In fact at one stage I couldn’t get access to any of the default wallpapers as I was gleefully informed by the system that I was not the owner – even as root. I am a relatively new user and thought that this would be easier than it transpires.

Are there any other changes I need to make to have my own pictures available from the backgrounds folder? I have noted previous posts on other forums for the selfsame issue but nobody seems to have the definitive answer to the problem. This really should not be a problem as it doesn’t seem to me to be a particularly difficult task for Linux to perform. I am using Ubuntu 14.04 LTS currently. I’ve only just decided to ditch Windows completely, so would like some help to reassure me that I have made the correct decision. Cozzie

AFolders under /usr are controlled by your package manager, which installed the wallpapers there in the first place. It is not a good idea to randomly add files to /usr. That’s not to say you can’t, but it is not advisable to mess with areas controlled by your package manager. If you want to add system wide files outside of the package manager’s environment, /usr/local/share is the recommended destination. The basic rule is that distro installed files go in /usr, externally installed files go in /usr/local and individual users’ files go in ~.

This being open source software, you are able to do pretty much whatever you want, but standards and conventions usually exist for good reason, and if you break it you get to keep all the little pieces.

However, that is not the reason that adding files there does not work for you. Adding files to the default list for Unity or Gnome is not a trivial task. To have them show up in the Wallpapers list, they also have to be added to an XML file in /usr/share/ gnome-background-properties, with a separate entry for each file.

However, if you put them all in a separate directory, say /usr/local/share/ backgrounds for global use or ~/.local/ share/backgrounds if they are only for you, then you can select them in the desktop Appearance window and they then show up under Pictures. They don’t have to be in the Pictures directory – you can put them wherever you want. Note that the thing with the XML file is specific to Gnome. With most other desktops you can put (or symlink) your files in a standard location in your home directory or /usr/local.