How do I automatically cycle through backgrounds in Ubuntu 9.10?

Question

I heard this is a new feature in 9.10, but I can't figure out how to use it. If it isn't a default feature, what's the best way to go about setting it up?

I prefer to have something invisible--no panel applets, unless the panel icon can be turned off.

Answer 1

You can do this without installing additional software. Simply use gconftool with a little shell script trickery (untested):

#!/bin/bash

while [ 1 ]
do
find /path/to/wallpapers/folder -type f > ~/walls.txt
count=$(cat ~/walls.txt | wc -l)
    for files in $(seq $count)
    do
        file=$(cat ~/walls.txt  | head -n $files | tail -n 1)
        gconftool-2 --type string --set /desktop/gnome/background/picture_filename "$file"
        sleep 300 # wait 5 minutes before changing again
    done
done

you'll need to change the /path/to/wallpaper/folder accordingly. This will go through every image in the folder, changing every 5 minutes. Once they've all been used it will start at the beginning again, and regenerate the file containing the names of the wallpapers to include any new wallpapers.

Answer 2

From here

Configure Desktop gives the option of a slideshow composed of any backgrounds you choose.

.

you can user wallpaper-tray is nice and easy. The options are very similar to kde's desktop background options.

Answer 3

Here's a quick shell script and cron job that will change to a random wallpaper every hour.

/home/aolsen/bin/wallpaper.sh

BKG_DIR="/home/aolsen/BKG/"
FILE="${BKG_DIR}$(ls "${BKG_DIR}" |sort -R |head -n1)" 
gconftool-2 --type string --set /desktop/gnome/background/picture_filename "${FILE}"

crontab -e

0 * * * * /home/aolsen/bin/wallpaper.sh

Change the 0 to */5 to make it switch every 5 minutes.