How to get a rotated linear gradient svg for use as a background image?

Please note that the gradientTransform attribute rotates the gradient according to it's anchor point at 0,0. To rotate it from the 'center' you need to calculate the proper percentages for x1, y1, x2 and y2. A simple PHP example:

// Rotation can be 0 to 360
$pi = $rotation * (pi() / 180);
$coords = array(
    'x1' => round(50 + sin($pi) * 50) . '%',
    'y1' => round(50 + cos($pi) * 50) . '%',
    'x2' => round(50 + sin($pi + pi()) * 50) . '%',
    'y2' => round(50 + cos($pi + pi()) * 50) . '%',
)

To rotate the gradient you can e.g use the 'gradientTransform' attribute, like this:

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="100%" height="100%" 
 viewBox="0 0 1 1" preserveAspectRatio="none">
  <linearGradient id="grad-ucgg-generated" gradientUnits="userSpaceOnUse" 
   x1="0%" y1="0%" x2="100%" y2="0%" gradientTransform="rotate(65)">
    <stop offset="0%" stop-color="#ffffff" stop-opacity="0"/>
    <stop offset="100%" stop-color="#ff0000" stop-opacity="1"/>
  </linearGradient>
  <rect x="0" y="0" width="1" height="1" fill="url(#grad-ucgg-generated)" />
</svg>

Giel Berkers' solution in Javascript would be:

// angle can be 0 to 360
var anglePI = (angle) * (Math.PI / 180);
var angleCoords = {
    'x1': Math.round(50 + Math.sin(anglePI) * 50) + '%',
    'y1': Math.round(50 + Math.cos(anglePI) * 50) + '%',
    'x2': Math.round(50 + Math.sin(anglePI + Math.PI) * 50) + '%',
    'y2': Math.round(50 + Math.cos(anglePI + Math.PI) * 50) + '%',
}