DreamScene for Ubuntu? Ta very much.

Ever wanted to set video as your desktop wallpaper a la the quickly-ditched Windows DreamScene? With 'Video Wallpaper' it's easy.

It actually moves. Honest.

By using Video Wallpaper you will be forfeiting the ability to use the 'desktop' as normal - no icons, files etc will show. Any drop shadows present on panels will also disappear. If you're tuff enuff to cope, here's how...

You will need: -

• shantz-xwinwrap (download here)
• zenity (already installed)
• mplayer (click here to install)
• the script (here)

And, not forgetting, a video to set as your wallpaper. I suggest browsing around on deviant.art using the term 'dreamscene' to get relevant results. 

Once the above have been installed and you've moved the script to someone accessible (preferably into your Nautilus Scripts folder (Home folder > .gnome2 > nautilus-scripts) you're ready to set a video as your wallpaper. Right click/run the script and, in the dialogue that appears, select the video you wish to use. Click 'Ok' and it will be set.

To kill a video just select the script again but when the selection dialogue appears click 'cancel'. 

Performance

The script used around 32% of my dual core CPU which, compared to the real DreamScene from my Vista days, is nothing. I didn't feel much lag (if any) and whilst the appeal in a looping desktop wallpaper is lost on me I do know that they are popular with a great number of people. C'mon - the worst you can do is try it out and find it's not for you. 

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Quirky Wallpaper: Real-time sunlight wallpaper

A few days back Benjamin posted an article on setting up a slick real-time Earth view wallpaper. In response to that Carles Sentis has sent us news of an awesome pet project of his which does all that that script did - and then some.

It's called ‘Realtime Sunlight Wallpaper’.

Features

Realtime Sunlight Wallpaper (RSW from herein) provides several exclusive features n' functions above the script we posted last week.

Most notably: -

• 4 different 'world map' views
• 'Dawn to dusk' wallpaper
• Moon phase wallpaper

RSW also allows users to mark the application to auto-start login thus requiring you to do nothing but watch your wallpaper auto-update before your very eyes! No need to poke around adding commands to the Start-up Applications list or calling a CRON job.

To install it just extract the folder and then navigate to where you have extracted the folder downloaded the file:

• cd /path/to/sunlight-0.0.11
• make
• sudo make install

Launch RSW by pressing ALT+F2 in unison and typing:

• sunlight-0.0.11

RSW would really rock if it had a .deb installed. If anyone is interested in contributing/packaging one then contact the author via the official launchpad project page.

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Quirky Wallpaper: Live Earth wallpaper

This could be you!

I love space, and, more specifically I love space wallpapers as my wallpaper. During exam time (like now) I usually set some motivational wallpaper like "Get the hell off Facebook and do some work" or "Mind like water" from the Minimal Wallpaper collection.

But when I'm not in study mode I like to have space pictures, and what better than a live, updating image of the Earth that changes every day?

Thankfully die.net generates an image of the Earth as to what it would look like from space each day, taking into account the sun, time of day, cloud cover and weather etc.

To set it as our wallpaper and have it change daily, we need to schedule a task. Install Gnome scheduler to make it easy:

sudo apt-get install gnome-schedule

Hit up Applications > System Tools > Schedule Tasks and create a new task. Enter a name in the Description field and in the command field, we want to grab the new image each day:

wget -r -N http://static.die.net/earth/mercator/1600.jpg

We then want to suppress the output, so choose that in the Default Behaviour dropdown box and underneath that, set the task to run daily. The image on the site actually gets updated every three hours, so if you want to primo extremo you could set it to download that often by using the advanced field.

By default your image will be downloaded daily and stored in /home/username/static.die.net/earth/mercator/1600.jpg. Now it's just a matter of changing your background to that image, which will get overwritten every time the task runs with the new one it downloads using wget.

The final product:

Big props to simplehelp.net for the original article and James Fritz for letting us know!

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Quirky Wallpaper: Set your mouse movement as desktop wallpaper

Turn your mouse movements into a zany desktop wallpaper using IOGraph.

Developed by Moscow designer Anatoly Zenkov & his colleague Andrey Shipilov, the JAVA application is designed to be run in the background as you go about your everyday 'computing'. Druing this time IOGraph builds up a picture based on the movement of your mouse. Once you've had it running for a while you can download the created image and set it as your desktop wallpaper.

Download
Download IOGraph by clicking the following button: -

Use
Once downloaded double click on the .jar archive to run it. Alternatively run it from the terminal by using: -

• cd /location/of/jar
• java -jar IOGraph.jar 

Press the circle in the middle of the screen to start recording and press it again to stop. Download the wallpaper by clicking the icon as per the screenshot above.

Thanks to Thomas

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Typography wallpaper creates a wallpaper using your installed fonts

Typography wallpaper is an awesome little script created by Dave Child that generates a wallpaper using your installed fonts - using a different font and character each time it is run.

Download

• First download the script from here (right click, save as)
• Now ensure you have PHP and ImageMagick installed

sudo apt-get install imagemagick php5

• Now rename the script extension to .php
• Move it to your Home folder

Before we run the script you need to tailor it. Make sure you pay attention to each section of the command highlighted below. Location

php fontpaper.php -i ~/wallpaper.jpg -s 1440x900 -l d0od -b 230417 -f ff9000

This is the path to where you want the wallpaper to be created. Make sure wherever you select is writeable. For ease of mind just your home folder. Size

php fontpaper.php -i ~/wallpaper.jpg -s 1440x900 -l d0od -b 230417 -f ff9000

This is the size the wallpaper - enter the dimensions fully. You can check your screen-size in System > Preferences > Monitors Characters to display/rotate through

php fontpaper.php -i ~/wallpaper.jpg -s 1440x900 -l d0od -b 230417 -f ff9000

In the example above I've entered the letter ö. You can enter as many letters as you like, all of which are case-specific, too. Note that only one will show at a time. Background colour

php fontpaper.php -i ~/wallpaper.jpg -s 1440x900 -l d0od -b 230417 -f ff9000

Enter the hexadecimal value of the background colour you'd like. There are many online tools for finding hex values such as html-color-codes.com The value in the example above is the new Ubuntu 10.04 purple colour. Foreground colour

php fontpaper.php -i ~/wallpaper.jpg -s 1440x900 -l d0od -b 230417 -f ff9000

This is the colour that the typography on your wallpaper will be written in, so choose something complimentary to the background colour. In the example above the foreground colour is the orange used on OMG! Ubuntu! Finish up Once you've tailored each part you can run the script as one command: -

php fontpaper.php -i ~/wallpaper.jpg -s 1440x900 -l d0od -b 230417 -f ff9000

The resulting image will be set as your wallpaper.

Set wallpaper to Auto-change

If you want the wallpaper to auto-change, setting a new wallpaper with a new character in a random font then you can set the script to run at set intervals though an application called GNOME-Schedule.

• sudo apt-get install gnome-schedule
• Start GNOME-Schedule
• Click 'new'
• Select 'recurrent' task type
• In the command field paste your custom command
• In the drop down box beneath the command field choose 'Suppress behaviour'
• Set a running interval
• Click 'add'.

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Quirky Wallpaper: Top 10 Recent Cinema Releases As Your Wallpaper

IMPloader is a small script that sets your wallpaper as a collage of posters from the current top 10 cinema releases. One caveat is that the script pulls its 'data' from a US-based soruce, meaning if you live anywhere else you'll likely find poster for movies that aren'y yet released in your country. With that thought under our belts, let's proceed. Requirements: - wget - ruby - imagemagick The first two will be installed by default, but you may (for some reason) not have imagemagick installed. This can be got using: -

• sudo apt-get install imagemagick

Install/Use

• Download the script from here and extract somewhere accessible.
• Right click the 'imploader.rb' script, go to 'properties > permissions' and make the script 'executable'
• Right click the 'imploader.rb' script again, this time choosing 'Open with gedit'.
• You need to set the following information: location to store wallpaper, wallpaper height & width and the style you want to choose.

The three styles are as follows, simply replace the number in the script with the one you wish to use: -Now run the script by either double-clicking on it or via the terminal using './imploader.rb'

• Once done, navigate to the directory where you chose to save it and set it as your wallpaper!

Other I haven't covered setting it up to run weekly/hourly, etc simply because running it manually is much quicker. Read the 'READ ME' included in the script for more information.

Last.Fm Collage! Real-time Earth! Interactive Globes! If you like this wallpaper, you might want to check out our other "quirky wallpaper" entrants.

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Easily Create Animated Wallpapers In Ubuntu

Using XML animated background creator to create auto-changing wallpapers is a snip. It allows you to specify the folder and images you wish to use, the duration of each wallpaper and auto-generates the required .xml file for GNOME to read from. The wallpapers are shown in alphabetical order, so bear this in mind if you want to choose the order of rotation.

As with other .xml wallpapers - including the set Ubuntu ships with by default - you can manually 'skip' wallpapers by using the controls in Appearance Properties. Usage To use the creator you can either place the 'xmlback' script in the directory of wallpapers you wish to use and run it. This will prompt you to specify duration, create the .xml file and then set it as your wallpaper.

You can also install this creator in nautilus by running the 'install.sh' script. This method allows you to go to apply the script whever you so via right-click > scripts > xmlback. Get Clever If you're creative you can find man clever ways to use this script such as simulating a morning to night effect by setting appropriately scened images to auto-change at hourly intervals. Download You can download XML Animated Background Generator @ Gnome-Look

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Set Bing.Com's Background Of The Day As Your Wallpaper [Updated]

Bing.com (Microsoft's Search engine) has various little features that users like. One of those being the daily 'background of the day'.

With a simple script by OMG! Ubuntu! reader "YoungJesus" you can automatically sync your desktop wallpaper with that of Bing.com's daily background.

Install

Download the script @ http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1115768/bing_wallpaper.sh

Once downloaded move it somewhere safe where it won't be deleted - such as a dedicated "Scripts" folder and grant it permissions either by right clicking the script, choosing proerties and ticking the "Allow Executing As A Programme" checkbox in the permissions tab or using the terminal and the command "chmod +x bing_wallpaper.sh". 

You can now run the script using ./bing_wallpaper.sh or by double-clicking on the script itself.

Your wallpaper should now change to that of Bing's daily image.

Use it Daily

If you like the script and want to have it automatically update your wallpaper then add it to System > Preferences > Startup Applications.

Thanks to Pratyush & YoungJesus.

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Quirky Wallpaper Series: KDE Edition

Want a rotational, zoom-able globe on your desktop? How about a flying animated star field?!

Welcome to QUirky WaLlpapers KDE Edition.

Star-Field 
"plasma-wallpaper-starfield" is a desktop background for KDEthat places an animated starfield over your wallpaper.

Although it can be quite CPU intensive and buggy, it's worth trying out just for the "huh!" factor. Coupling it with a space-esque wallpaper makes for a super cool effect, too.

(Imagine this animated.)

Installation

You can install the plasma star-field (and a bunch of other updated packages from "untrusted" PPA's) using this PPA [link].

Simple add the PPA, update and then install the 'plasma-wallpaper-starfield' package using ( the god awful) KPackageKit or via Konsole.

Globe

Setting your desktop to a move-able, usable globe (complete with a variety of themes) is very simple.

 

Install

Open up KpacakgeKit or Konsol and install the kdeplasma-addons package.

Once installed right-click on the desktop and select 'Desktop Settings'. Under the wallpaper menu chooce 'globe' and then proceed to choose one of the available themes.

Click 'Apply' and then zoom, twist etc until you get the desktop you want!

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Quirky Wallpaper Series: Use Your LastFm Data As A Cool Wallpaper!

WallpaperFM converts your Last.Fm data into a really cool - and highly customizable - wallpaper. Way too cool not to make part of my Quirky Wallpaper Series and share with the rest of you Ubuntu users!

If you want to try this out, open a terminal and paste each line.

• cd
• mkdir wallpaperfm
• cd wallpaperfm
• wget http://ledazibao.free.fr/wallpaperfm/wallpaperfm.py
• chmod a+x wallpaperfm.py
• ./wallpaperfm.py -u YOURLASTFMUSERNAME

This gives you the "basic" look.

Default wallpaperfm style

The basic look is nice, but you can tweak it much further - and enable some really cool styles to boot!

Tweak Open a terminal and cd to /wallpaperfm (or whereever you have saved the .py file you wget'd above.) Type:

• ./wallpaperfm.py -u YOUUSERNAME

Then add any of the following options that you see fit.

Username

-u ausername

Time Period

-t overall -t 3month -t 12month -t 6month

Style

-m tile -m glass -m collage Wallpaper size -i yourwallpapersize

Opacity

-O numberbetween0and100 As such my command might look like this: - ./wallpaperfm.py -u joeysneddon -i 1440x900 -m collage -t overall

More Options

As well as the general options listed above, there are specific options for each "mode".

Tile Options

You can change the size of the album covers from the default setting of 130x130. -a imagesize for example: - -a 100 gives you album tiles 100x100.

Collage Options

You can specify how many album covers are used in the collage by using the following flag: - -n numberofalbumcovers Example: - -n 60 would use 60 album covers.

Glass Options

You can choose to display more than 7 albums in the Glass mode by also using the -n flag. Example: - -n 10 The size of the covers will decrease as you increase the number.

Glass mode using 14 covers.

You can find more options on the official site @ http://ledazibao.free.fr/wallpaperfm

Updating

You can use this hack offline too, just use the -l flag.

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Quirky Wallpaper Series: Real Time Earth View Wallpaper

removed.

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Quirky Wallpaper Series: Random NASA Wallpaper Script

'Quirky Wallpaper' is a short series of posts about different types of wallpapers for Gnome/Ubuntu. These range from having a real-time earth displayed as your wallpaper to an entirely animated desktop!

Random NASA Wallpaper

This script downloads a random wallpaper from NASA's 'Astronomy Picture Of The Day' archive and sets it as your background - all with one click!

And when you're bored of the one you've got, click it again to automatically get a new one.

 

 

Downloaded wallpapers are saved in nasa-wallpaper folder in your home folder - so if you fall in love with one it's there to keep!

Download: -
You can grab the script from: -

• http://www.gnome-look.org/content/show.php/random-nasa-wallpaper?content=112717

Installation:
Extract the script and move it somewhere where you're not likely not accidentally delete it!

Right click the script and choose Properties.

Navigate to the Permissions tab and check 'Allow Executing File As A Program'.
You can now double click the script and choose 'run' to change your wallpaper.

Create a menu entry
An easier way to use the script is to create a menu entry for it. This way you can summon and run it via gnome-do and bypass the need to choose 'run' each time you want to change your wallpaper.

Select

• menu editor

from the

• System > Preferences

menu. Or by right click the Ubuntu Menu and choosing

• edit menus

Decide which menu you would like to have the entry placed in and click on it. I've placed mine in 'Accessories'.
Hit

• New Item

and enter a name for the launcher. I've named mine 'Nasa Wallpaper'.
Next to the 'Command' field select the browse button and navigate to where you have the script saved. Choose it by clicking 'Open'.

If you want to add an icon simply click on the 'Spring' icon and choose a new icon. I've used the following .png as mine: -

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