How to Download Ubuntu Wallpapers on Any Linux OS
Ubuntu has some fantastic wallpapers, and with every release, they seem to get better. Sadly, the Ubuntu Linux distribution does not make their wallpapers readily available for users of other Linux OSes.
If you’re interested in using Ubuntu’s wallpapers on your Linux operating system, we can help! Follow along as we show you how to Download Ubuntu Wallpapers on Any Linux OS!
Accessing the Ubuntu wallpapers
All of Ubuntu’s wallpapers are distributed through DEB packages in the Ubuntu “Main” software repository. As not every Linux operating system works with DEB packages, we will need to demonstrate how to install the Alien package conversion tool before showing you how to get your hands on these Ubuntu wallpapers.
To install the Alien package conversion tool on your Linux PC, open up a terminal window by pressing Ctrl + Alt + T or Ctrl + Shift + T on the keyboard. Then, search for the “alien” package in your Linux operating system’s package manager.
Unable to find the Alien package conversion tool in your Linux OS’s package manager? Don’t worry! Simply enter the commands down below to get everything working.
Linux Mint/Elementary OS/Etc
On Ubuntu-like operating systems, install Alien with the Apt program.
sudo apt install alien
Debian
In Debian, get the Alien package conversion tool working with Apt-get.
sudo apt-get install alien
Arch Linux
On Arch Linux, Alien is very easy to install using the Pacman command.
sudo pacman -S git base-devel git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/trizen.git cd trizen makepkg -sri trizen -S alien_package_converter
Fedora
In Fedora, you should be able to install Alien quite easily with Dnf.
sudo dnf install alien
OpenSUSE
OpenSUSE users may need to build the program from source. To do this, follow our guide on how to convert DEB to RPM. In this guide, we show how to set up Alien on OpenSUSE in detail.
20.04 Wallpapers
Ubuntu 20.04’s wallpapers are ready for download, although while writing this post, it is not yet out of the Beta stage. To get your hands on the new Ubuntu 20.04 LTS wallpaper, open up a terminal window by pressing Ctrl + Alt + T or Ctrl + Shift + T on the keyboard. Then, follow the step-by-step instructions below.
Step 1: Use the wget downloader tool to grab the latest Ubuntu 20.04 LTS wallpaper DEB package on your PC.
wget https://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/u/ubuntu-wallpapers/ubuntu-wallpapers-eoan_20.04.1-0ubuntu1_all.deb -O ~/Downloads/ubuntu-wallpapers-eoan_20.04.1-0ubuntu1_all.deb
Step 2: After downloading the ubuntu-wallpapers_20.04.1-0ubuntu1_all.deb package to your PC, use the CD command to move the terminal session from the home directory to the ~/Downloads directory.
cd ~/Downloads
Step 3: Use the Alien package conversion tool to convert the DEB package to a TarGZ archive. Conversion to TarGZ is required so that we can get access to the wallpaper image files.
sudo alien -tv ubuntu-wallpapers-eoan_20.04.1-0ubuntu1_all.deb
Step 4: Make a new folder in the ~/Downloads directory called “20.04-wallpapers” with the mkdir command.
mkdir -p 20.04-wallpapers
Step 5: Extract the 20.04 LTS TarGZ archive to the 20.04-wallpapers folder.
tar xvf ubuntu-wallpapers-eoan-20.04.1.tgz -C 20.04-wallpapers/
Step 6: Place the wallpaper files inside of the 20.04-wallpapers directory into your ~/Pictures folder.
mv ~/Downloads/20.04-wallpapers/usr/share/backgrounds/* ~/Pictures
Step 7: Now that the 20.04 wallpaper files are in the ~/Pictures directory, the 20.04-wallpapers folder is no longer needed. Delete it with rm -rf.
rm -rf 20.04-wallpapers/
Step 8: Open up the wallpaper settings in your Linux desktop environment, select the “Pictures” folder, and choose one of the Ubuntu 20.04 wallpapers.
18.04 Wallpapers
Although Ubuntu 18.04 LTS is nearing the end of days, it still has some pretty good wallpapers to check out. If you want to check them out, follow the step-by-step instructions below.
Step 1: Open up a terminal window on the desktop and use the wget downloader tool to grab the Ubuntu 18.04 wallpaper DEB package from the Ubuntu “Main” software repository.
wget https://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/u/ubuntu-wallpapers/ubuntu-wallpapers-bionic_18.04.1-0ubuntu1_all.deb -0 ~/Downloads/ubuntu-wallpapers-bionic_18.04.1-0ubuntu1_all.deb
Step 2: After downloading the Ubuntu 18.04 wallpaper DEB package to your computer, use the CD command to move the terminal session into the ~/Downloads directory.
cd ~/Downloads
Step 3: Inside of the ~/Downloads directory, create a new folder with the mkdir command. Name this new folder “18.04-wallpapers”.
mkdir -p 18.04-wallpapers
Step 4: Using the Alien package conversion tool, convert the ubuntu-wallpapers-bionic_18.04.1-0ubuntu1_all.deb file to a TarGZ archive file.
sudo alien -tv ubuntu-wallpapers-bionic_18.04.1-0ubuntu1_all.deb
Step 5: Once the Ubuntu 18.04 wallpaper DEB package is done converting to a TarGZ archive file, it is time to extract it to the 18.04-wallpapers folder that was created earlier. Using the tar command extract the contents of the archive file.
tar xvf ubuntu-wallpapers-bionic-18.04.1.tgz -C 18.04-wallpapers/
Step 6: With everything extracted to the 18.04-wallpapers folder, use the mv command to place the wallpaper files from the ~/18.04-wallpapers/usr/share/backgrounds folder into the ~/Pictures folder.
mv ~/18.04-wallpapers/usr/share/backgrounds/* ~/Pictures
Step 7: All of the wallpaper files have been moved out of the 18.04-wallpapers folder into the ~/Pictures directory. As a result, the 18.04-wallpapers folder is no longer necessary. Delete it from the system with rm -rf.
rm -rf 18.04-wallpapers/
Step 8: Access the “wallpaper” settings for your desktop environment, and choose a wallpaper from the ~/Pictures directory to enjoy the Ubuntu 18.04 wallpapers on your system!
