Different backgrounds for different workspaces

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foberle
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Different backgrounds for different workspaces

Post by foberle »

Using Mint 18.3 with Cinnamon Desktop...

I used to use Compiz on another distro to set different backgrounds for each workspace, but am getting the idea from these forums that Compiz is not recommended for Mint/Cinnamon.

a) Is that last generally tru and, if so, why?
b) Is there some facility within Mint that permits setting different backgrounds for each workspace?

Command Line and/or editing config files is an acceptable solution.

Thanks in advance...
Cosmo.
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Re: Different backgrounds for different workspaces

Post by Cosmo. »

a) Compiz dos not work with Cinnamon (stated by a dev team member).

b) Cinnamon does not support different backgrounds for different workspaces.
foberle
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Re: Different backgrounds for different workspaces

Post by foberle »

Thanks much for the response.

Since Cinnamon doesn't support different background screens for different workspaces, are there any other methods people use to indicate which workspace they are on at any given time?

The panel applet (at least on my machine, which I haven't changed from the default) shows four boxes, with the first box having a white center, and the remaining three with a black center. I would have thought that the white center was an indicator to which workspace was active, but regardless of whether I switch workspaces using Ctrl+Alt+arrow or clicking on the desired workspace indicator, the white center is always on the first box - making it useless unless I'm missing something obvious.

Again, thanks.
Cosmo.
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Re: Different backgrounds for different workspaces

Post by Cosmo. »

The "white center" in the workspace-switcher applet is not an indicator for the active workspace, but it represents the open windows inside of the respective workspace. If you have on one workspace multiple, but not maximized windows open, which reside on different places on the desktop, you will see, that only the mini-window, which has the focus, is white, the others appear gray. If you switch to another workspace you should see, that all of those kind of mini-windows get gray. The same happens, if you set the focus to the desktop itself or if you press super-d to show the desktop. So far those mini-windows are not an indicator for the currently active workspace, but there is an indicator: The active workspace does get shown in the applet with a thin white border. If this is not good enough visible for you, than open the preferences of the applet and change the kind of display; now the active window has a color inside.
foberle
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Re: Different backgrounds for different workspaces

Post by foberle »

Thanks - I hadn't used it enough to notice that.
hofl

Re: Different backgrounds for different workspaces

Post by hofl »

Hello,

I wrote a script and added some (I think) useful features to cinnamons workspace-support:
- named workspaces
- individual wallpapers for every workspace
- every workspace has its own individual content (files, directories, ...) ;-)
- every workspace has its own "recent documents" history

The script can be found here: https://github.com/hofrichter/linux
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smurphos
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Re: Different backgrounds for different workspaces

Post by smurphos »

hofl wrote: Sat May 26, 2018 1:39 am Hello,

I wrote a script and added some (I think) useful features to cinnamons workspace-support:
- named workspaces
- individual wallpapers for every workspace
- every workspace has its own individual content (files, directories, ...) ;-)
- every workspace has its own "recent documents" history

The script can be found here: https://github.com/hofrichter/linux
Nice - would be a good idea for a Cinnamon Extension... :)
For custom Nemo actions, useful scripts for the Cinnamon desktop, and Cinnamox themes visit my Github pages.
Feelx

Re: Different backgrounds for different workspaces

Post by Feelx »

hofl wrote: Sat May 26, 2018 1:39 am Hello,

I wrote a script and added some (I think) useful features to cinnamons workspace-support:
- named workspaces
- individual wallpapers for every workspace
- every workspace has its own individual content (files, directories, ...) ;-)
- every workspace has its own "recent documents" history

The script can be found here: https://github.com/hofrichter/linux
I'm new to all this (just installed linux mint 19 cinnamon (tara)) last week (Yes...that new :!: )
And I tried to install the script... tried, because I could not manage to get it to work.
Can someone give me a step by step explanation? I need only individual wallpapers on the different workspaces.
Thanks
menier

Re: Different backgrounds for different workspaces

Post by menier »

Feelx wrote: Mon Aug 27, 2018 6:08 am Can someone give me a step by step explanation?
I had the same question and I found explanation inside file desktop-switcher.sh following the link.
Script works and wallpapers are changed. But some issue is still not resolved.
What is GLOBAL_DESKTOP variable? If I define it as "/home/myname/Desktop" folder then error "rm: cannot remove '/home/myname/Desktop': Is a directory" occurs. If it is a file - I have no idea which one. Does anybody have a clue?
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