Sunday, January 25, 2009

Wallpaper Changer Apps For Linux


Webilder

wallpaper-changer-ubuntu" align="left">Webilder is one of the best wallpaper changers for Linux. Not only does it change your wallpaper at regular intervals but it can also download images directly from Flickr and WebShots (requires a paid account) and add them to your collection.

When downloading from Flickr, you can configure it to download photos that match the tags you specified, or just to download the most interesting photo of the day.

If you run out of tags idea, you can also check out the Webilder channel to see what others are downloading and add their tags to your Webilder.

webilder-desktop

In addition, Webilder also comes with a simple photo browser where you can preview the image in full screen and decide if you want to use it as the wallpaper.

Wallpapoz

I like Wallpapoz the best, for the simple reason that it allows me to specify a different set of wallpapers for each workspace. When I change workspace, the wallpaper also changes accordingly. With this feature, you can configure each workspace to display a different ‘mood’ of wallpaper.

The first workspace may display those ‘Get back to work’ kinds of wallpaper that constantly remind you to finish up your work. The second workspace may be made up of relaxing, soothing wallpaper where you can listen to your music with peace. The trick is, when you are bored with your work, simply switch the workspace and change your mood instantly.

I am not sure if this works for you, but it is definitely working for me.

wallpapoz

The current version of this app is 0.4.1 and works well in most Linux distros with GNOME desktop. This will also be the last stable version as the developer has decided to quit the development.

Drapes

Desktop drapesDrapes is a simple wallpaper changer that sit quietly in the notification area and changes your wallpaper every once in a while. A good thing about Drapes is that you can specify a folder for it to monitor. When you add a new wallpaper into the folder, Drapes will pick it up and add it to its database.

Generally, this is a simple wallpaper changer that performs what it’s supposed to do - change wallpapers at regular intervals. If you just want a set it once and leave it kind of wallpaper-changing app, then this is most suitable for you.

If you are using Ubuntu, Drapes is included in the repository and you can easily install via the Synaptic Package Manager. If that is too troublesome for you, click here to install it.

Wallpaper-Tray

Wallpaper-Tray is another simple wallpaper changer that does only the basic stuff. You specify the location of your wallpapers, set the time interval and you are good to go. No surprises.

wallpaper-tray : wallpaper changer download

There is one interesting feature though - Wallpaper Search tool. You type in some text in the search bar and it will search your filesystem and display all the images with file names similar to your search term. You can then select from the results the image that you want to set as the wallpaper.

Wallpaper-Tray is also available in the Ubuntu repository.

Wallpaper Changer Screenlet

screenlet-wallpaper-changer If you have already installed Screenlets in your system, you can also use the Wallpaper Changer Screenlet to change your wallpaper at regular intervals. Same as Webilder, it allows you to download the interesting picture of the day from Flickr. It can also retrieve images from art.gnome.org and Google Images.

There is no installation required for this app. You just need to download the tar file and extract it to the Screenlets folder (usually located in /home/username/.Screenlets). You can then activate the app via the Screenlets main menu.

While this app works fine as a wallpaper changer, its interface is rather unpolished and can be hard to manage at times. I would advise you to use this app only if you have already installed Screenlets.

Did I miss out any wallpaper changer app for Linux? Do let me know and I will add it to the list.


Ref :-- http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-wallpaper-changer-apps-for-linux/


On top of this there are few other alternatives as follows

1. nitrogen

2. feh

3. gnome-wallchanger

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

2008
Automatic Desktop Wallpaper Changer
I have a lot of wallpaper that I wanted to switch automatically. After a lot of search i found that there a command way to control all the gnome settings. So I the command I used is "gconftool-2".
So code is like:

#!/bin/bash
folder="/home/rsrijith/Pics" #folder where the pics lie in
find $folder -iregex ".*.jp.?g" >$folder/temp_back #list all images in the folder
no=$(cat $folder/temp_back|wc -l)
rand=$(echo `expr $RANDOM % $no`)
while ( grep -q $rand $folder/.last50 )
do
rand=$(echo `expr $RANDOM % $no`)
done
echo $rand >> $folder/.last50
tail -50 $folder/.last50 >$folder/temp
cat $folder/temp >$folder/.last50
rm $folder/temp
file=$(sed -n $rand'p' $folder/temp_back)
ON_USER=rsrijith #your username here

export DBUS_SESSION=$(grep -v "^#" /home/$ON_USER/.dbus/session-bus/`cat /var/lib/dbus/machine-id`-0)

sudo -u $ON_USER $DBUS_SESSION /usr/bin/gconftool-2 -t string -s /desktop/gnome/background/picture_filename "$file" && echo "Worked On:"$(date) >>/home/$ON_USER/logs/desktopbackground
echo "Set Wallpaper as:"$file >>/home/$ON_USER/logs/desktopbackground
rm $folder/temp_back

I have used the DBUS_SESSION variable to make it compatible with Ubuntu 8.10. The Dbus session is a bit bit different from earlier versions. The change is that it does'nt accept the change until the gnome is restarted. It's due to the new session that is made each time you update that value.

So the folder variable should the folder where the wallpapers should lie. You can put pictures in folders inside that folder. All of it will be taken. But I have specified to take only jpg and jpeg only.Now a random image is picked from that using the environment variable $RANDOM. Next we update the gnome settings using gconftool-2 if that image was'nt used in the last 50 changes.

Thus this file picks an image and puts it as wallpaper. So the next part is making this change automatically. For this we use cron (linux scheduler).
Use the command below to enter the crontab
sudo crontab -e
Enter the crontab entry as
*/15 * * * * /home/rsrijith/shell/deskback 2>>/home/rsrijith/logs/deskbackground
Check the entry using
sudo crontab -l
That's all!!!
Anyone tried? Worked? Comment me !!!

Ref ---->http://sriunplugged.blogspot.com/2008/11/automatic-desktop-wallpaper-changer.html

Anonymous said...

I found this post really helpful when looking for a wallpaper changer, but unfortunatly none of them worked on an out-of-the-box Lubuntu system. So I decided to develop my own, and decided on a simple command line interface. It *should* work for most configurations, but you know, can't be certain.

Anyway, here's the link, if you're interested: http://circean-studios.co.cc/index.php?page=x-wallpaper-changer

Stay cool :D