Wallutils

• Detect monitor resolutions and set the desktop wallpaper, for any window manager (please file an issue if your window manager is not supported yet).
• Supports GNOME timed wallpapers, and includes a utility that can run an event loop for changing them (also supports cross fading).
• Introduces a new file format for timed wallpapers: The Simple Timed Wallpaper format: Web | Markdown | PDF

Timed Wallpapers

The Mojave timed wallpaper and other timed wallpapers can be set with the settimed command, and will cross fade from image to image as the day progresses:

Included utilities

• getdpi, for retrieving the average DPI, for all monitors (use -b to see the DPI both horizontally and vertically).
• lscollection, for listing installed wallpaper collections (use -l for also listing paths and collection names).
• timedinfo, for showing more information about installed timed wallpapers.
• lsmon lists the connected monitors and resolutions (use -d for also listing DPI).
• lstimed for listing installed timed wallpapers (use -l for also listing paths).
• lswallpaper, for listing all installed wallpapers (use -l and -s to list more information).
• setcollection, for setting a suitable (in terms of resolution) wallpaper from a wallpaper collection.
• setrandom, for setting a random wallpaper.
• settimed, for setting timed wallpapers (will continue to run, to handle time events).
• setwallpaper can be used for setting a wallpaper (works both over X and the Wayland protocol).
• wayinfo shows detailed information about the connected monitors, via Wayland.
• xinfo shows detailed information about the current X setup.
• xml2stw for converting GNOME timed wallpapers to the Simple Timed Wallpaper format.

Example use of the lsmon utility

$ lsmon
0: 1920x1200
1: 1920x1200
2: 1920x1200

Building and installing utilities

Using make, for building and installing all included utilities:

make
make install

Using Go 1.12 or later, for a single utility:

go get -u github.com/xyproto/wallutils/cmd/settimed

On Arch Linux:

Install wallutils from AUR, or:

sudo pacman -Syu git go libxcursor libxmu wayland xbitmaps xorgproto
git clone https://github.com/xyproto/wallutils
cd wallutils
make
sudo make PREFIX=/usr/local install

On Fedora:

sudo dnf update
sudo dnf install git golang libXcursor-devel libXmu-devel xorg-x11-xbitmaps
git clone https://github.com/xyproto/wallutils
cd wallutils
make
sudo make PREFIX=/usr/local install

On Ubuntu:

sudo apt get update
sudo apt get install git golang-go libx11-dev libxcursor-dev libxmu-dev
git clone https://github.com/xyproto/wallutils
cd wallutils
make
sudo make PREFIX=/usr/local install

Wayland or X only

The packages related to X can be removed after building if only wish to keep the Wayland-related functionality. And likewise for X.

Example use of settimed

settimed mojave-timed

Example use of setwallpaper

setwallpaper /path/to/background/image.png

Example use of setrandom

setrandom /usr/share/pixmaps

Example use of the Go package

Retrieve monitor resolution(s)

package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "os"

    "github.com/xyproto/wallutils"
)

func main() {
    // Retrieve a slice of Monitor structs, or exit with an error
    monitors, err := wallutils.Monitors()
    if err != nil {
        fmt.Fprintf(os.Stderr, "%s\n", err)
        os.Exit(1)
    }
    // For every monitor, output the ID, width and height
    for _, monitor := range monitors {
        fmt.Printf("%d: %dx%d\n", monitor.ID, monitor.Width, monitor.Height)
    }
}

Change the wallpaper

fmt.Println("Setting background image to: " + imageFilename)
if err := wallutils.SetWallpaper(imageFilename); err != nil {
    return err
}

Build requirements

• Go 1.12 or later.
• A working C compiler (tested with GCC 8.2.1).
• Header files for Wayland and X.

Runtime requirements

• libwayland-client.so, for Wayland support.
• libX11.so, for X support.

It is also possible to build with make static, to only build the utilities that does not depend on any of the above .so files, as statically compiled ELF executables.

Wallpaper collections

The XML format from GNOME for specifying wallpaper collections is not yet supported (and I'm not sure if it's needed). Creating a directory with images where the filename of the images specify the resolution (like wallpaper_5639x3561.jpg) is enough for lscollection to recognize it as a collection (if the directory is placed in /usr/share/backgrounds or /usr/share/wallpapers).

Setting a wallpaper per monitor

Setting a wallpaper per monitor is not yet supported, but it might be in the future.

Refreshing the wallpaper after waking from sleep

Try sending the USR1 signal to the settimed process:

pkill settimed -USR1

This should refresh the wallpaper.

General info

• Author: Alexander F. Rødseth <xyproto@archlinux.org>
• License: MIT
• Version: 5.7.2