RandomWallpaperGnome3

Random Wallpapers for Gnome 3 is a gnome-shell extension that fetches a random wallpaper from an online source and sets it as desktop background.

Install and try the extension at extensions.gnome.org.

Features

• Various configurable wallpaper sources
  • Unsplash
  • Wallhaven
  • Reddit
  • Basically any JSON API/File (Examples)
    • Chromecast Images
    • NASA Picture of the day
    • Bing Picture of the day
    • Google Earth View
  • Local folders
  • Static URLs
• Multiple sources to create a pool of sources
• History of previous images
  • Save your favourite wallpaper
  • Add images to a block list
• Set the lock screen background
• Timer based renewal (Auto-Fetching)
  • Load a new wallpaper on startup
  • Pause the timer when desired
• Support for multiple monitors using third party tools
  • Hydra Paper
  • Superpaper
• Execute a custom command after every new wallpaper

Installation

Release Archives

Archives from the release page can be installed and uninstalled using the gnome-extensions command line tool with the commands below.

gnome-extensions install <path-to-archive>

gnome-extensions uninstall randomwallpaper@iflow.space

Symlink to the Repository

Installing this way has following advantages:

• Updating the extension using git (git pull && ./build.sh)
• Switching between versions and branches using git (run ./build.sh after switching branch).

Requires blueprint-compiler and npm at install and update time.

Clone the repository and run ./build.sh && ./install.sh in the repository folder to make a symbolic link from the extensions folder to the git repository. This installation will depend on the repository folder, so do not delete the cloned folder.

Then open the command prompt (Alt+F2) end enter r to restart the gnome session. In the case you are using Wayland, then no restart should be required.

Now you should be able to activate the extension through the gnome-tweak-tool.

To uninstall the extension, run ./install uninstall or manually delete the corresponding symbolic link.

Build From Source

Requires blueprint-compiler and npm at install and update time.

Clone or download the repository and copy the folder randomwallpaper@iflow.space in the repository to $XDG_DATA_HOME/gnome-shell/extensions/ (usually $HOME/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/). Run ./build.sh inside the repository.

Then open the command prompt (Alt+F2) end enter r to restart the gnome session. In the case you are using Wayland, then no restart should be required.

Now, you should be able to activate the extension through the gnome-tweak-tool.

Debugging

You can follow the output of the extension with ./debug.sh. Information should be printed using the existing logger class but can also be printed with global.log() (not recommended). To debug the prefs.js use ./debug.sh prefs.

Compiling individual parts

Schemas

This can be done with the command:

glib-compile-schemas --targetdir="randomwallpaper@iflow.space/schemas/" "src/schemas"

UI

Requires blueprint-compiler:

blueprint-compiler batch-compile "src/ui" "randomwallpaper@iflow.space/ui" "src"/ui/*.blp

TypeScript

Requires npm:

npm install
npx --silent tsc

Adding new sources

1. Build UI for settings using the blueprint-compiler language in src/ui/mySource.blp - see Workbench for a live preview editor.
2. Create and add a settings layout to the src/schemas/….gschema.xml. Also add your source to the types enum.
3. Create your logic hooking the settings in a src/ui/mySource.ts
4. Add the new source to src/ui/sourceRow.ts:_getSettingsGroup(), don't forget the import statement.
5. Create a adapter to read the settings and fetching the images and additional information in src/adapter/mySource.ts by extending the BaseAdapter.
6. Add your adapter to src/wallpaperController.ts:_getRandomAdapter(), don't forget the import statement.

Support Me

If you enjoy this extension and want to support the development, then feel free to buy me a coffee. 😉 ☕