dark GUI of Ubuntu when logging in. How to change?

[Tom H]

> However, to change the GDM theme to something else requires a different
> set of steps, since in 8.04 there's actually a tool to accomplish what I
> described earlier (was under System > Administration > Login Screen...
> but has since been drastically cut down). I think the new tool to manage
> the GDM screen is going to be in the next revision of Gnome. (maybe in
> time for 10.04? who knows...)

The reason for your procedure is that since 9.10, the login screen and
the xauth cookie are owned by gdm (the user gdm) and the only time
that you can launch a gui tool owned by gdm is at the login screen.

Previously (9.04 and earlier), you could make these changes by
launching the login screen tool with gksudo while logged in as an
admin user.

I have just tried alt-f2 and both gksu -u gdm gnome-control-center and
gksudo -u gdm gnome-control-center on lucid and neither of them
worked. :(