You can do it by 2 ways:

• use loadImage(...) and set layout background in listener (ImageLoadingListener.onLoadingComplete(..., Bitmap loadedImage, ...))
• Implement ImageAware which will wrap LinearLayout (like ImageViewAware). At this moment you can find ViewAware class in repository which does the main work for it. You should just extend it like this:

• public class BgViewAware extends ViewAware {    public BgViewAware(View view) {        super(view);    }    public BgViewAware(View view, boolean checkActualViewSize) {        super(view, checkActualViewSize);    }    @Override    protected void setImageDrawableInto(Drawable drawable, View view) {        view.setBackgroundDrawable(drawable);    }    @Override    protected void setImageBitmapInto(Bitmap bitmap, View view) {        view.setBackgroundDrawable(new BitmapDrawable(view.getResources(), bitmap));    }}

  And then you can pass this BgViewAware (new BgViewAware(linearLayout)) into displayImage(...) method.
  But ViewAware class isn‘t released yet. It will be available in UIL 1.9.2.

https://github.com/nostra13/Android-Universal-Image-Loader/issues/594

How to set background image to a LinearLayout using Android-Universal-Image-Loader ? #594