Comments on Create A Desktop Background Wallpaper Changer For Xfce
Create A Desktop Background Wallpaper Changer For Xfce I have switched to Xubuntu a few months ago coming from Kubuntu. In Kubuntu I liked the (already available) option of setting up a list of image files and have them randomly displayed as background image on the desktop. This was one of the things I have missed so far in Xfce. This small howto shows you how you can randomly display background wallpapers in XFCE.
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Just want to say - thanks a ton for this howto, I've been looking for a way to do this for a couple days. Works great, though I set mine to work only every 30 minutes. (Only 10 wallpapers so far. :)
Anyway, instead of the whole cron.txt thing, simply use "crontab -e", as this will open your cron file if you have one already or make a new one if you don't. Just eliminating one step.
How do you save and exit after typing crontab -e? I can't exit that file in terminal. using fedora. thanks.
when i type crontab cron.txt i get this:
"cron.txt":2: premature EOF
errors in crontab file, can't install.
?
Very good site! I am a fan of different cool wallpapers ! I will recommend this site to my all my friends!
Thank you very much for the help, you can use this crontab string to execute command every 5 minutes:
*/5 * * * * killall -USR1 xfdesktop
Also, USR1 signal does not changes walpaper on my freebsd box, I'm using XFCE 4.6 on it, but KILL signal works well (it seems that XFCE restarts xfdesktop process when it killed)
My version xfce4 4.6.1
Hi, on my debian there is no option -USR1. I think the killall is real overkill. Sometimes xfdesktop came not back again.
So, create the list of images and put that in your crontab:
*/5 * * * * xfdesktop --reload
That avoid also the grey screen while changing.
Thanks a lot for your article Stephan
El Siurel
well, i often use wallpaper template to make wallpaper on mac, i think that will more easier.
I don't know which version of Xfce you're using or when this was posted (no timestamp) but in Xfce 4.13.6 that I use, Xfce deskop setting already has an option to change the background, optionally randomly, with any time interval of your choice, without having to resort to a cron job.
I found this webpage while trying to find a way to change the way transition between background is done. Currently it is instantaneous, which distracts me when I have a whole bunch of windows open and only a snippet of the background is seen.
When that snippet of background suddenly changes, it grabs my attention unnecessarily, so I was hoping to have an option to slowly transition to a new background without me noticing.