Customizing the LG WebOS 10 / WebOS25 Homescreen

How to replace the background image, remove unwanted UI elements, and change system text on your LG TV — no permanent changes to the read-only filesystem.

Tested on: LG WebOS 10.2.2 (Rockhopper), EU region
Requirements: Root access, active SSH connection, Homebrew Channel with webosbrew init.d support

Before / After

Before

After

Background

On WebOS 10, the Home app has been completely rewritten in Flutter (unlike older versions which used QML). The layout is controlled by XML files, and UI text comes from locale JSON files — all inside the app's Flutter assets directory:

/usr/palm/applications/com.webos.app.home/data/flutter_assets/assets/

This directory is on a read-only, cryptographically signed filesystem, so we can't edit files directly. Instead, we use a bind mount overlay: copy the assets to a writable location in /tmp, apply our modifications, and mount that over the original directory. The original files are never touched.

One important detail: the i18n folder inside assets is a symlink to another read-only partition. If you want to modify locale files (e.g. to change or remove UI text), you need to replace the symlink with a real directory first. The apply script below handles this automatically.

Directory Structure

Create your working directory on the writable developer partition:

mkdir -p /media/developer/apps/usr/palm/applications/tld.my.customhome/assets/images/hd
mkdir -p /media/developer/apps/usr/palm/applications/tld.my.customhome/assets/images/2k
mkdir -p /media/developer/apps/usr/palm/applications/tld.my.customhome/assets/images/4k
mkdir -p /media/developer/apps/usr/palm/applications/tld.my.customhome/assets/i18n

The apply.sh Script

This script copies the original assets to /tmp, replaces the i18n symlink with a real directory, overlays your modifications, mounts the result over the original directory, and restarts the Home app.

cat > /media/developer/apps/usr/palm/applications/tld.my.customhome/apply.sh << 'EOF'
#!/bin/sh

set -e -x

ASSETS_DIR=/usr/palm/applications/com.webos.app.home/data/flutter_assets/assets
OVERRIDE_DIR=/media/developer/apps/usr/palm/applications/tld.my.customhome/assets

umount "$ASSETS_DIR" 2>/dev/null || true
rm -rf /tmp/weboshome-merged
mkdir /tmp/weboshome-merged
cp -R --no-dereference "$ASSETS_DIR"/. /tmp/weboshome-merged/

# Replace i18n symlink with real directory
rm /tmp/weboshome-merged/i18n
cp -R "$OVERRIDE_DIR/i18n" /tmp/weboshome-merged/i18n

# Copy rest of overrides
cp -R "$OVERRIDE_DIR"/home.xml /tmp/weboshome-merged/
cp -R "$OVERRIDE_DIR"/home_layoutShelfView.xml /tmp/weboshome-merged/
cp -R "$OVERRIDE_DIR"/images/. /tmp/weboshome-merged/images/

mount --bind /tmp/weboshome-merged "$ASSETS_DIR"
pkill -f com.webos.app.home || true
EOF

chmod +x /media/developer/apps/usr/palm/applications/tld.my.customhome/apply.sh

The umount at the start ensures the script is safe to run multiple times without errors.

Removing Unwanted UI Elements

The layout is defined in two XML files. Copy them into your override directory first:

cp /usr/palm/applications/com.webos.app.home/data/flutter_assets/assets/home.xml \
   /media/developer/apps/usr/palm/applications/tld.my.customhome/assets/home.xml

cp /usr/palm/applications/com.webos.app.home/data/flutter_assets/assets/home_layoutShelfView.xml \
   /media/developer/apps/usr/palm/applications/tld.my.customhome/assets/home_layoutShelfView.xml

Remove the Recommended Shelf

The recommendedShelf is the large content recommendation strip at the bottom of the screen (531px tall), loaded dynamically from LG's servers.

sed -i '/<item id="recommendedShelf"/d' \
    /media/developer/apps/usr/palm/applications/tld.my.customhome/assets/home.xml

Remove the Q-Card List

The qcardList is the horizontal card strip shown above the app list.

sed -i '/<item id="qcardList"/d' \
    /media/developer/apps/usr/palm/applications/tld.my.customhome/assets/home.xml

Hide the Global Navigation Menu (top right icons)

The globalline is the vertical icon menu on the side. Setting its size to 0 hides it without breaking the layout. Do not remove it entirely — it causes a black screen.

In home.xml, set the globalline item to width and height 0, and make sure it comes after herobanner inside the container, so it overflows off-screen rather than pushing content.

The home.xml after all modifications

This is what a fully modified home.xml looks like with a fullscreen hero banner and the app list pushed to the bottom:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<home version="2.0">
<layout windowType="overlay" pageType="none" pageCount="1" defaultPage="0">
<page pageBodyType="container">
<item id="margin" itemWidth="3840" itemHeight="0" focusType="none"/>
<item id="container" hasChildren="true" itemWidth="3840" itemHeight="1803" focusType="scope">
<item id="herobanner" itemWidth="3840" itemHeight="1803" focusType="scope" autoFocus="false"/>
<item id="globalline" itemWidth="0" itemHeight="0" focusType="scope" autoFocus="false"/>
</item>
<item id="margin" itemWidth="3840" itemHeight="50" focusType="none"/>
<item id="appList" itemWidth="3840" itemHeight="248" focusType="scope" autoFocus="true"/>
<item id="margin" itemWidth="3840" itemHeight="48" focusType="none"/>
<item id="quickGuide" itemX="0" itemY="0" itemWidth="0" itemHeight="0" focusType="none"/>
</page>
</layout>
</home>

Note: The top margin should be itemHeight="0" to avoid a thin black bar at the top.

Replacing the Hero Banner Image

The hero banner background image is stored in three resolutions:

assets/images/hd/bg_banner_img.png
assets/images/2k/bg_banner_img.png
assets/images/4k/bg_banner_img.png

If you use a fullscreen hero banner (itemHeight="1803"), the recommended image dimensions are 3840×1803px. For the default size, use 3840×900px.

Copy your image to the TV from your PC:

scp your_image.png root@<TV-IP>:/media/developer/apps/usr/palm/applications/tld.my.customhome/assets/images/4k/bg_banner_img.png
scp your_image.png root@<TV-IP>:/media/developer/apps/usr/palm/applications/tld.my.customhome/assets/images/2k/bg_banner_img.png
scp your_image.png root@<TV-IP>:/media/developer/apps/usr/palm/applications/tld.my.customhome/assets/images/hd/bg_banner_img.png

Changing or Removing UI Text

The hero banner shows two text elements: a headline and a CTA button. These can be changed or removed by editing the locale JSON files.

First, copy all locale files into your override directory:

cp /mnt/lg/wee/ui_l10n/usr/palm/applications/com.webos.app.home/data/flutter_assets/assets/i18n/* \
   /media/developer/apps/usr/palm/applications/tld.my.customhome/assets/i18n/

Then edit the relevant strings in your locale file (e.g. de.json). To remove the text entirely, set the values to empty strings:

sed -i 's/"Start a new experience with webOS.": "[^"]*"/"Start a new experience with webOS.": ""/' \
    /media/developer/apps/usr/palm/applications/tld.my.customhome/assets/i18n/de.json

sed -i 's/"Go to Apps": "[^"]*"/"Go to Apps": ""/' \
    /media/developer/apps/usr/palm/applications/tld.my.customhome/assets/i18n/de.json

Or replace them with custom text:

sed -i 's/"Start a new experience with webOS.": "[^"]*"/"Start a new experience with webOS.": "Your custom text here"/' \
    /media/developer/apps/usr/palm/applications/tld.my.customhome/assets/i18n/de.json

This works because the apply script replaces the i18n symlink with a real directory containing your modified files.

Testing

Apply your changes manually:

sh /media/developer/apps/usr/palm/applications/tld.my.customhome/apply.sh

The Home app will restart automatically. If something goes wrong (black screen, crash), simply reboot the TV — the bind mount is not persistent across reboots, so everything returns to its original state.

Making Changes Persistent (Autostart)

Once you're happy with the result, register the script with the webosbrew init system so it runs automatically on every boot:

ln -sf /media/developer/apps/usr/palm/applications/tld.my.customhome/apply.sh \
       /var/lib/webosbrew/init.d/49-custom-homescreen

Then reboot to verify:

reboot

Final Directory Layout

/media/developer/apps/usr/palm/applications/tld.my.customhome/
├── apply.sh
└── assets/
    ├── home.xml
    ├── home_layoutShelfView.xml
    ├── i18n/
    │   ├── de.json         (modified)
    │   └── ...             (all other locale files, unmodified)
    └── images/
        ├── hd/
        │   └── bg_banner_img.png
        ├── 2k/
        │   └── bg_banner_img.png
        └── 4k/
            └── bg_banner_img.png

Notes & Limitations

The XML element names and file structure may differ between TV models, regions, and WebOS versions. Always inspect the original files on your specific TV first.
The overlay is applied in /tmp and is lost on reboot — that's intentional and makes this approach safe to experiment with.
Icon size is hardcoded in the Flutter binary (libapp.so) and cannot be changed via XML. option="webOS24" and other values on the AppList item are ignored.
A built-in clock component exists in the senior layout (home_lg.xml) but does not render outside of that layout context.

Credits

thanks to /u/really_accidental for the tip with hiding the global navigation for a even slicker look

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
LICENSE		LICENSE
README.md		README.md
SCR-20260428-shkq.jpeg		SCR-20260428-shkq.jpeg
SCR-20260428-shnq.jpeg		SCR-20260428-shnq.jpeg
webos-dev-tmp-58150897-6906-4e77-a7dd-f994a6e4282a.png		webos-dev-tmp-58150897-6906-4e77-a7dd-f994a6e4282a.png

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Customizing the LG WebOS 10 / WebOS25 Homescreen

Before / After

Before

After

Background

Directory Structure

The apply.sh Script

Removing Unwanted UI Elements

Remove the Recommended Shelf

Remove the Q-Card List

Hide the Global Navigation Menu (top right icons)

The home.xml after all modifications

Replacing the Hero Banner Image

Changing or Removing UI Text

Testing

Making Changes Persistent (Autostart)

Final Directory Layout

Notes & Limitations

Credits

About

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Contributors

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Customizing the LG WebOS 10 / WebOS25 Homescreen

Before / After

Before

After

Background

Directory Structure

The apply.sh Script

Removing Unwanted UI Elements

Remove the Recommended Shelf

Remove the Q-Card List

Hide the Global Navigation Menu (top right icons)

The home.xml after all modifications

Replacing the Hero Banner Image

Changing or Removing UI Text

Testing

Making Changes Persistent (Autostart)

Final Directory Layout

Notes & Limitations

Credits

About

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