slick-greeter ignoring config settings

• slick-greeter version 2.0.3
• Distribution - manjaro with bspwm
• AMD Radeon RX 570 amdgpu
• 64 bit

Issue
I can't change the background for the greeter. The new background is located in /usr/share/backgrounds with --apparently-- the correct permissions.

The correct background DOES show when I run lightdm --test-mode --debug but not when I logout and get the login screen again.

Tried changing it in the file slick-greeter.conf, tried using the settings app, even changed it on dconf-editor and still nothing. Even resetting the config -- deleting slick-greeter.conf and letting a default one be created -- does nothing.

The weirdest thing though: it's still trying to show the previous background I set (not a default one), which is located in $HOME/Media/wallpapers/... and that setting is absolutely in no file I can find. This is driving me crazy. I say "trying to show" because eventually I changed the name of that file and now, obviously, it displays a black background (but the log does show it tried to load it).

$> lightdm --show-config

   [LightDM]
A  run-directory=/run/lightdm

   [Seat:*]
A  greeter-session=lightdm-slick-greeter
A  session-wrapper=/etc/lightdm/Xsession

Sources:
A  /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf

/etc/lightdm/slick-greeter.conf

  [Greeter]
  background=/usr/share/backgrounds/2025.jpg
  theme-name=Arc-Dark
  icon-theme-name=Papirus-Dark
  font-name='Product Sans 11'
  xft-antialias=true
  xft-hintstyle=hintfull
  enable-hidpi=auto
  only-on-monitor=DisplayPort-0
  show-a11y=false
  show-power=false

Here is seat0-greeter.log. 2025.jpg is the new background I set, which seems to get picked up by the greeter in the beginning here, only to be ignored afterwards.

[olishaus lightdm]# cat seat0-greeter.log
[+0,00s] DEBUG: _g_io_module_get_default: Found default implementation dconf (DConfSettingsBackend) for ‘gsettings-backend’
[+0,00s] DEBUG: settings.vala:169: Overriding dconf setting for background with /usr/share/backgrounds/2025.jpg
[+0,00s] DEBUG: settings.vala:178: Resetting dconf setting for background-color to default
[+0,00s] DEBUG: settings.vala:178: Resetting dconf setting for logo to default
[+0,00s] DEBUG: settings.vala:178: Resetting dconf setting for other-monitors-logo to default
[+0,00s] DEBUG: settings.vala:169: Overriding dconf setting for theme-name with Arc-Dark
[+0,00s] DEBUG: settings.vala:169: Overriding dconf setting for icon-theme-name with Papirus-Dark
[+0,00s] DEBUG: settings.vala:178: Resetting dconf setting for cursor-theme-name to default
[+0,00s] DEBUG: settings.vala:169: Overriding dconf setting for font-name with 'Product Sans 11'
[+0,00s] DEBUG: settings.vala:178: Resetting dconf setting for play-ready-sound to default
[+0,00s] DEBUG: settings.vala:169: Overriding dconf setting for xft-hintstyle with hintfull
[+0,00s] DEBUG: settings.vala:178: Resetting dconf setting for xft-rgba to default
[+0,00s] DEBUG: settings.vala:169: Overriding dconf setting for enable-hidpi with auto
[+0,00s] DEBUG: settings.vala:169: Overriding dconf setting for only-on-monitor with DisplayPort-0
[+0,00s] DEBUG: settings.vala:178: Resetting dconf setting for clock-format to default
[+0,00s] DEBUG: settings.vala:178: Resetting dconf setting for onscreen-keyboard-layout to default
[+0,00s] DEBUG: settings.vala:178: Resetting dconf setting for content-align to default
[+0,00s] DEBUG: settings.vala:196: Resetting dconf setting for draw-user-backgrounds to default
[+0,00s] DEBUG: settings.vala:196: Resetting dconf setting for stretch-background-across-monitors to default
[+0,00s] DEBUG: settings.vala:196: Resetting dconf setting for draw-grid to default
[+0,00s] DEBUG: settings.vala:196: Resetting dconf setting for show-hostname to default
[+0,00s] DEBUG: settings.vala:187: Overriding dconf setting for show-power
[+0,00s] DEBUG: settings.vala:187: Overriding dconf setting for show-a11y
[+0,00s] DEBUG: settings.vala:196: Resetting dconf setting for show-clock to default
[+0,00s] DEBUG: settings.vala:196: Resetting dconf setting for show-keyboard to default
[+0,00s] DEBUG: settings.vala:196: Resetting dconf setting for show-quit to default
[+0,00s] DEBUG: settings.vala:187: Overriding dconf setting for xft-antialias
[+0,00s] DEBUG: settings.vala:196: Resetting dconf setting for activate-numlock to default
[+0,00s] DEBUG: settings.vala:214: Resetting dconf setting for xft-dpi to default
[+0,00s] DEBUG: settings.vala:214: Resetting dconf setting for cursor-theme-size to default
[+0,00s] DEBUG: settings.vala:232: Resetting dconf setting for hidden-users to default
[+0,00s] DEBUG: settings.vala:232: Resetting dconf setting for group-filter to default
[+0,00s] DEBUG: slick-greeter.vala:720: HiDPI support: auto

(process:11373): dconf-WARNING **: 10:27:35.561: failed to commit changes to dconf: Erro ao chamar a linha de comandos “dbus-launch --autolaunch=e3b34086213a41dea4f3b4eff16ae44d --binary-syntax --close-stderr”: Processo filho concluiu com código 1

(process:11373): dconf-WARNING **: 10:27:35.561: failed to commit changes to dconf: Erro ao chamar a linha de comandos “dbus-launch --autolaunch=e3b34086213a41dea4f3b4eff16ae44d --binary-syntax --close-stderr”: Processo filho concluiu com código 1
[+0,23s] DEBUG: unsetenv() is not thread-safe and should not be used after threads are created
[+0,23s] DEBUG: slick-greeter.vala:744: Starting slick-greeter 2.0.3 UID=971 LANG=pt_BR.UTF-8
[+0,23s] DEBUG: slick-greeter.vala:747: Setting cursor
[+0,23s] DEBUG: slick-greeter.vala:761: Loading command line options
[+0,23s] DEBUG: slick-greeter.vala:788: Setting GTK+ settings
[+0,23s] DEBUG: _g_io_module_get_default: Found default implementation local (GLocalVfs) for ‘gio-vfs’
[+0,25s] DEBUG: slick-greeter.vala:792: Setting GTK theme: Arc-Dark
[+0,28s] DEBUG: slick-greeter.vala:797: Setting icon theme: Papirus-Dark
[+0,28s] DEBUG: slick-greeter.vala:802: Setting cursor theme: xcursor-breeze
[+0,28s] DEBUG: slick-greeter.vala:807: Settings cursor theme size: 24
[+0,28s] DEBUG: slick-greeter.vala:826: Creating Slick Greeter
[+0,28s] DEBUG: slick-greeter.vala:55: Creating background surface
[+0,28s] DEBUG: Connecting to display manager...
[+0,28s] DEBUG: Wrote 26 bytes to daemon
[+0,28s] DEBUG: Read 8 bytes from daemon
[+0,28s] DEBUG: Read 160 bytes from daemon
[+0,28s] DEBUG: Connected api=1 version=1.32.0 hide-users=false has-guest-account=false default-session=default show-manual-login=false show-remote-login=true
[+0,28s] DEBUG: Using cross-namespace EXTERNAL authentication (this will deadlock if server is GDBus < 2.73.3)
[+0,34s] DEBUG: Loading users from org.freedesktop.Accounts
[+0,34s] DEBUG: User /org/freedesktop/Accounts/User1000 added
[+0,35s] DEBUG: user-list.vala:1064: Adding/updating user olivia (Olivia)
[+0,35s] DEBUG: Loading sessions from org.freedesktop.DisplayManager
[+0,35s] DEBUG: main-window.vala:259: Monitor 0 is 2560x1440 pixels at 0,0
[+0,35s] DEBUG: main-window.vala:259: Monitor 1 is 1920x1080 pixels at 2560,0
[+0,35s] DEBUG: main-window.vala:259: Monitor 2 is 1920x1080 pixels at 4480,0
[+0,35s] DEBUG: main-window.vala:275: MainWindow is 0x0 pixels
[+0,35s] DEBUG: slick-greeter.vala:829: Showing greeter
[+0,35s] DEBUG: slick-greeter.vala:311: Showing main window
[+0,36s] DEBUG: background.vala:66: Making background #000000 at 2560x1440,1920x1080
[+0,36s] DEBUG: background.vala:77: Render of background #000000 complete
[+0,37s] DEBUG: Loaded session /usr/share/xsessions/bspwm.desktop (bspwm, Binary space partitioning window manager)
[+0,37s] DEBUG: Starting authentication for user olivia...
[+0,37s] DEBUG: Wrote 22 bytes to daemon
[+0,37s] CRITICAL: gtk_check_menu_item_set_active: assertion 'GTK_IS_CHECK_MENU_ITEM (check_menu_item)' failed
[+0,37s] DEBUG: slick-greeter.vala:839: Starting main loop
[+0,37s] CRITICAL: file greeter-list.vala: line 208: unexpected error: Erro ao chamar a linha de comandos “dbus-launch --autolaunch=e3b34086213a41dea4f3b4eff16ae44d --binary-syntax --close-stderr”: Processo filho concluiu com código 1 (g-spawn-exit-error-quark, 1)
[+0,37s] CRITICAL: user_list_on_remote_login_service_vanished: assertion 'conn != NULL' failed
[+0,37s] DEBUG: background.vala:605: Regenerating backgrounds
[+0,37s] DEBUG: background.vala:66: Making background #000000 at 2560x1440,1920x1080
[+0,37s] DEBUG: background.vala:77: Render of background #000000 complete
[+0,37s] DEBUG: background.vala:66: Making background /home/olivia/Media/wallpapers/digiart/2024-01-01_new-year-illustration.jpg at 2560x1440,1920x1080
[+0,37s] DEBUG: background.vala:157: Error loading background: Falha ao abrir o arquivo “/home/olivia/Media/wallpapers/digiart/2024-01-01_new-year-illustration.jpg”: Arquivo ou diretório inexistente
[+0,37s] DEBUG: background.vala:605: Regenerating backgrounds
[+0,37s] DEBUG: background.vala:66: Making background #000000 at 2560x1440,1920x1080
[+0,37s] DEBUG: background.vala:77: Render of background #000000 complete
[+0,37s] DEBUG: background.vala:66: Making background /home/olivia/Media/wallpapers/digiart/2024-01-01_new-year-illustration.jpg at 2560x1440,1920x1080
[+0,37s] DEBUG: background.vala:157: Error loading background: Falha ao abrir o arquivo “/home/olivia/Media/wallpapers/digiart/2024-01-01_new-year-illustration.jpg”: Arquivo ou diretório inexistente
[+0,38s] DEBUG: slick-greeter.vala:299: starting system-ready sound
[+0,38s] DEBUG: background.vala:119: Render of background /home/olivia/Media/wallpapers/digiart/2024-01-01_new-year-illustration.jpg complete
[+0,38s] DEBUG: background.vala:136: images[0] was null for /home/olivia/Media/wallpapers/digiart/2024-01-01_new-year-illustration.jpg
[+0,38s] DEBUG: background.vala:136: images[1] was null for /home/olivia/Media/wallpapers/digiart/2024-01-01_new-year-illustration.jpg
[+0,38s] DEBUG: background.vala:119: Render of background /home/olivia/Media/wallpapers/digiart/2024-01-01_new-year-illustration.jpg complete
[+0,38s] DEBUG: background.vala:136: images[0] was null for /home/olivia/Media/wallpapers/digiart/2024-01-01_new-year-illustration.jpg
[+0,38s] DEBUG: background.vala:136: images[1] was null for /home/olivia/Media/wallpapers/digiart/2024-01-01_new-year-illustration.jpg
[+0,38s] DEBUG: Read 8 bytes from daemon
[+0,38s] DEBUG: Read 36 bytes from daemon
[+0,38s] DEBUG: Prompt user with 1 message(s)
[+5,46s] CRITICAL: xapp_kbd_layout_controller_get_current_short_group_label: assertion 'controller->priv->enabled' failed
[+5,46s] CRITICAL: xapp_kbd_layout_controller_get_current_name: assertion 'controller->priv->enabled' failed
[+5,64s] CRITICAL: xapp_kbd_layout_controller_get_current_short_group_label: assertion 'controller->priv->enabled' failed
[+5,64s] CRITICAL: xapp_kbd_layout_controller_get_current_name: assertion 'controller->priv->enabled' failed
[+5,71s] DEBUG: Providing response to display manager
[+5,71s] DEBUG: Wrote 26 bytes to daemon
[+5,73s] DEBUG: Read 8 bytes from daemon
[+5,73s] DEBUG: Read 18 bytes from daemon
[+5,73s] DEBUG: Authentication complete for user olivia with return code 0
[+5,73s] DEBUG: main-window.vala:234: Killing orca and onboard
[+5,73s] DEBUG: Starting session bspwm
[+5,73s] DEBUG: Wrote 17 bytes to daemon
[+5,73s] DEBUG: Read 8 bytes from daemon
[+5,73s] DEBUG: Read 4 bytes from daemon
[+5,73s] DEBUG: slick-greeter.vala:834: Got a SIGTERM
[+5,73s] DEBUG: slick-greeter.vala:842: Cleaning up
[+5,73s] DEBUG: slick-greeter.vala:855: Exiting

I don't know where else to look for an explanation and solution. The greeter seem to be reading the settings from somewhere else completely. Please help?

Start with settings.vala and background.vala, then compare the configured /etc/lightdm/slick-greeter.conf values with the seat0-greeter.log output. Reproduce using lightdm --test-mode --debug and inspect the background regeneration path in background.vala. Done means the configured /usr/share/backgrounds/2025.jpg is used on the login screen rather than the stale home-directory path.