Automatic Wallpaper Changer

[LastSolution]

LMDE 12 - MATE

I'm new to Linux Mint in general and I really really like LMDE--MATE and it's speed, etc. It is the exact experience and philosophy I want.

There is just one thing I haven't found, and that's an automatic random wallpaper changer. I was using Wally on my last distribution (Ubuntu 10.10) which was pointed at 4 folders in which I have collected several thousand wallpapers. What are you guys using to do this on LMDE 12 - MATE?

-And if there is nothing available right now, is there something coming I should be watching for that will be able to do this for me?

I'm really surprised at how much I miss the changing wallpaper scenes....I think I am in withdrawals!

Thanks!

[xircon]

I use webilder http://www.webilder.org/ works well on Gnome & Cinnamon, should work on Mate. Think I had to pilfer some Ubuntu packages to get it to work.

Steve

[rop75]

What I did was downloading the package wallch 2.1 from the ubuntu 11.10 repositories (http://packages.ubuntu.com/oneiric/wallch).

It is very easy to configure and it works perfectly in LMDE with Gnome shell, (I haven't tried it with MATE but I will do this afternoon and I will let you know whether it works or not), the only thing you need to remember is to close the program (wallch) once you finish configuring it (to close it properly you only need to press the keys ctrl and Q, and it only needs to be closed like this the first time you use it) so that wallch starts everytime your PC boots

EDIT: Wallch doesn't work in MATE. There are similar programs in the repos: desktopnova or cortina. None of them work properly in gnome shell, but both of them used to work in gnome 2, so you can download them and give them a go

[nicko715]

I'm using Mint 13 with Mate and Cortina seems to work for me. I just downloaded it, but so far so good.

[kpearsonxyz]

FYI, neither Cortina or Desktopnovva work in LMDE 201303, Cinnamon, and I'm a bit nuts over it... I have ~750 images I've collected, or photographed myself, and I'd love a random changer that actually works.

I'll keep looking and if I remember, I'll post an update when I find something that works.

[xircon]

I am using Variety wallpaper changer in cinnamon 1.8 on Manjaro, not on LMDE anymore. You have to add the following line to ~/.config/variety/scripts/set_wallpaper:

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gsettings set org.cinnamon.background picture-uri “file://$1″ 2> /dev/null

for it to work, but in my opinion it is the best out there.

see http://www.webupd8.org/2012/11/variety- ... s-new.html which is how I found it.

Steve

[kpearsonxyz]

Thaks for your response. I'll have to check that out.

in the meantime, I've re-installed that laptop with Linux Mint 14, XFCE. It has a built-in wallpaper changer that is as robust as any I've used.

I would much rather use Mint LMDE and forego the upgrade madness Ubuntu tortures its users with, and subsequently so does Mint in the Ubuntu-derived varieties.

But, the LMDE edition doesn't have any way for me to use WiFi and I'm past wanting to waste my time compiling and modprobing my way into compliance. I just want something that works out of the box. Linux is mature enough that we can expect that, can't we? Now with that said, I wish I was a programmer that could just make things work the way I want, and then share what I've done with the rest of the distribution's users as a regular contributor. But I'm no programmer.

So, I'll see about webupd8.org and bookmark it for future reference.

Thanks!

[edwardr]

I've got Mint xfce on a laptop. I found that if I suspended then resumed the laptop, the wallpapers would no longer rotate. I got around that by using crontab to rotate my wallpapers. I set up my wallpaper list using the xfce desktop settings, but set it to apply a new wallpaper only on startup. Then I added a line to my crontab file to refresh the wallpaper every hour. From a terminal I opened crontab by typing "crontab -e" then added the following to the end of the file:

0 * * * * DISPLAY=:0.0 xfdesktop --reload

this reloads a new wallpaper every hour on the hour, which also serves as a fun reminder of how much time I am wasting on the computer each time a new wallpaper appears.

[momist]

Hmm. I have just changed from Cinnamon on my Mint 13 Maya into Mate 1.4. Wallch doesn't work of course, but when I loaded Cortina and tried to run it I got the following warning, and it died.
sni-qt/7204 WARN 00:30:47.030 void StatusNotifierItemFactory::connectToSnw() Invalid interface to SNW_SERVICE

Same result after a log out/in.

Any others I should try? I hate the same wallpaper all the time, and miss my photos.

[Tonho]

Try this one:


sudo add-apt-repository ppa:peterlevi/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install variety

[darethehair]

Code: Select all

gsettings set org.cinnamon.background picture-uri “file://$1″ 2> /dev/null

I was glad to get this 'tip' on a possible way for my own cron-based wallpaper changing to start working again, but when I try this command myself in Cinnamon 1.8.8, I get an error message:

Code: Select all

darren@frodo2 ~ $ gsettings set org.cinnamon.background picture-uri file://ldat1/pics_assorted/JamLabel.jpg
No such key 'picture-uri'

Any thoughts as to what I am doing wrong? Using quotes around the file name is not necessary in my case, but it also makes no difference for success

[spoodie]

Code: Select all

darren@frodo2 ~ $ gsettings set org.cinnamon.background picture-uri file://ldat1/pics_assorted/JamLabel.jpg
No such key 'picture-uri'

Any thoughts as to what I am doing wrong? Using quotes around the file name is not necessary in my case, but it also makes no difference for success

The correct syntax seems to be:

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gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri 'file:///[file]'

But that doesn't change my wallpaper, even when I logout and back. I will persevere ...

[kpearsonxyz]

I am using WallCH which just works.

But, I also dropped LMDE because I couldn't get some things working on this old laptop. I'm on Mint Cinnamon 14 64-bit and it's beautiful.

[spoodie]

I am using WallCH which just works.

Bah! "It just works", that's no fun.

I'm using it now, works a treat. Thanks very much.

[kpearsonxyz]

No kidding.

What ever happened to

Code: Select all

./configure;sudo make;sudo make install

Now those were the [not so much] good old days...

[darethehair]

The correct syntax seems to be:

Code: Select all

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri 'file:///[file]'

But that doesn't change my wallpaper, even when I logout and back. I will persevere ...

Yay! That syntax appears to work for me! Thanks! I added an appropriate entry to cron to do this, and I am back in action!

So it then looks like the gsettings keys have been changed, since (as you say) the 'desktop.background' one no longer is in the 'cinnamon' one:

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darren@frodo2 ~ $ gsettings list-keys org.cinnamon.background
mode
slideshow-delay
slideshow-folder
slideshow-recursive

...but is instead in the 'gnome' one:

Code: Select all

darren@frodo2 ~ $ gsettings list-keys org.gnome.desktop.background
color-shading-type
draw-background
picture-opacity
picture-options
picture-uri
primary-color
secondary-color
show-desktop-icons

[kpearsonxyz]

There is nothing more dangerous than a bored cat

I disagree. They typically sleep. Dogs. That is what is dangerous when bored. Very.

[darethehair]

There is nothing more dangerous than a bored cat

I disagree. They typically sleep. Dogs. That is what is dangerous when bored. Very.

Lol! Well, at least dogs have a conscience!

[kpearsonxyz]

I think I'll have to agree with that. It does appear dogs have a conscience.

BTW, I'm using dictation (speech recognition) software after hand surgery. Palaver (in dictation mode rather than command mode). A great open source project. Read about it here: http://www.linux.com/news/embedded-mobile/mobile-linux/711479-palaver-taps-googles-voice-technology-for-linux-speech-recognition

[mmeixide]

Variety was not working for me when using the repository. But it works perfect now when I have downloaded its dependency from:
http://packages.debian.org/sid/i386/gir1.2-appindicator3-0.1/download
Using the repository:
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/peterlevi/ppa/ubuntu raring main
May be same others have got the same problem

Variety is able to use many pictures databases from the net, using keywords and tags to get the wallpapers to display