[FC1] Changing screen background from script

[laurence orchard]

Hi All

I have a series of digital photos taken with my camera using a time
delay of 1 min over two hours.

I would like to use these as a changing screen background on a 2 hour
loop.
I know how to change the background using the menu system, but I think I
need to use a script to do what I want.

Does anyone know of a program to change the background or the file where
the background picture file name is stored, so I can change it every
min?

Thanks

Laurence

[Rick Stevens]

Laurence Orchard wrote:
> Hi All
>
> I have a series of digital photos taken with my camera using a time
> delay of 1 min over two hours.
>
> I would like to use these as a changing screen background on a 2 hour
> loop.
> I know how to change the background using the menu system, but I think I
> need to use a script to do what I want.
>
> Does anyone know of a program to change the background or the file where
> the background picture file name is stored, so I can change it every
> min?

xsetroot will change the bacground image of the root (background) window
of X.  "man xsetroot" for info.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer     [e-mail] -
- VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
-                                                                    -
-     Warning:  You are logged into reality as the root user...      -
----------------------------------------------------------------------

[Travis Osterman]

I run ~/.gnome2/nautilus-scripts/changebg every ten minutes from cron
as myself (source below).  Just change the two default variables and
chmod 755.  Good luck.

-- Travis

#!/bin/sh
#
# changebg
#
# Place this script in
# ~/.gnome2/nautilus-scripts/
#
# you can then call it at you leisure or
# add it to a cron job to be run by
# your user

DEFAULT_WALLPAPER_DIR="/mnt/mm/data/dump/pics"
DEFAULT_MIN_SIZE=50k

# TODO: and condition to allow user to
# override default values by passing values
# the command line
WALLPAPER_DIR=${DEFAULT_WALLPAPER_DIR}
MIN_SIZE=${DEFAULT_MIN_SIZE}

FILES_FOUND=`find "${WALLPAPER_DIR}" -size +${MIN_SIZE} -and -name
'*.jpg' | wc -l`
echo "****************************"
echo "*                          *"
echo "* ${FILES_FOUND} were found"
echo "*                          *"
echo "****************************"
RANDOM_NUMBER=$(( ${RANDOM} % ${FILES_FOUND} +1 ))
RANDOM_FILE=`find "${WALLPAPER_DIR}" -size +${MIN_SIZE} -and -name
'*.jpg' | head -n ${RANDOM_NUMBER} | tail -1`
echo "*                          *"
echo "* Setting ${RANDOM_FILE}"
echo "*                          *"
echo "****************************"
gconftool-2 -s /desktop/gnome/background/picture_filename -t string
"${RANDOM_FILE}"

# TODO
# implement '-size' '-path' '-bg' and '--help' parameters
# support multiple paths
# support center, stretch, etc

On Wed, 30 Jun 2004 14:01:36 -0700, Rick Stevens
 wrote:
> Laurence Orchard wrote:
> > Hi All
> >
> > I have a series of digital photos taken with my camera using a time
> > delay of 1 min over two hours.
> >
> > I would like to use these as a changing screen background on a 2 hour
> > loop.
> > I know how to change the background using the menu system, but I think I
> > need to use a script to do what I want.
> >
> > Does anyone know of a program to change the background or the file where
> > the background picture file name is stored, so I can change it every
> > min?
>
> xsetroot will change the bacground image of the root (background) window
> of X.  "man xsetroot" for info.
> Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer     [e-mail] -
> VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
>                                                                -
> Warning:  You are logged into reality as the root user...      -
>
> --
> fedora-list mailing list
> [e-mail]
> To unsubscribe: http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list

[Mike Klinke]

On Wednesday 30 June 2004 16:07, Laurence Orchard wrote:
> Hi All
>
> I have a series of digital photos taken with my camera using a time
> delay of 1 min over two hours.
>
> I would like to use these as a changing screen background on a 2
> hour loop.
> I know how to change the background using the menu system, but I
> think I need to use a script to do what I want.
>
> Does anyone know of a program to change the background or the file
> where the background picture file name is stored, so I can change
> it every min?
>
> Thanks
>
> Laurence

If you're using KDE you can set up for multiple background images, in 
your case all 120, and simply have them loop through changing them 
once a minute.  I don't know if there's a similar setup for GNOME 
though....

Regards,  Mike Klinke

[James Wilkinson]

Laurence Orchard wrote:
> Hi All
>
> I have a series of digital photos taken with my camera using a time
> delay of 1 min over two hours.
>
> I would like to use these as a changing screen background on a 2 hour
> loop.
> I know how to change the background using the menu system, but I think I
> need to use a script to do what I want.

Under GNOME, try putting something like this in your (user) crontab:

#!/bin/bash
# rotate the backdrop in X

PIC_DIR=/mnt/data/Pictures/Backdrop

cd $PIC_DIR || exit
CHOICE=$(expr $RANDOM * $(ls 2>/dev/null | wc -l )  / 32768 + 1)
PICTURE=$(ls 2>/dev/null | tail -n $CHOICE | head -1)

nice -20 gconftool-2 --type=string \
    --set /desktop/gnome/background/picture_filename "$PIC_DIR/$PICTURE"

Note: that \ on the penultimate line must be right at the end of the
line (no further spaces or tabs). Obviously, you replace PIC_DIR's
value with where you keep your pictures.

HTH,

James.