Multiple Backgrounds

[itannerjh]

Hey everyone! I'm relatively new on Xubuntu, and I am experimenting on different layouts for my monitor, namely vertical, and horizontal. I have found that I like using both for different things. When I am watching movies, or videos, I like horizontal, but when I am typing a paper for school, I like to use vertical, because it gives me a better view of the page. Is there any way to make it so that whenever I switch layouts, the wallpaper will change?

Thanks a ton

[Toz]

Hello and welcome to the forums.

This isn't possible using the configuration options within Xfce, but you can use a script to accomplish this. Here is one:

#!/bin/bash

#defaults
VERTICAL=90 #0=normal, 90=left, 180=inverted, 270=right
HORIZONTAL=0 #0=normal, 90=left, 180=inverted, 270=right
OUTPUT=LVDS1 #from xrandr -q | grep " connected"
VERTICAL_WALL="/home/toz/Pictures/View.jpg"
HORIZONTAL_WALL="/home/toz/Pictures/Galaxy.jpg"

### DON'T CHANGE ANYTHING BELOW #######################################

case $VERTICAL in
0) XVERTICAL=normal;;
90) XVERTICAL=left;;
180) XVERTICAL=inverted;;
270) XVERTICAL=right;;
*) XVERTICAL=null;;
esac
case $HORIZONTAL in
0) XHORIZONTAL=normal;;
90) XHORIZONTAL=left;;
180) XHORIZONTAL=inverted;;
270) XHORIZONTAL=right;;
*) XHORIZONTAL=null;;
esac

#get the current rotation
CURRENT=$(xfconf-query -c displays -p /Default/$OUTPUT/Rotation)

if [ "$CURRENT" -eq "$HORIZONTAL" ];
then
xrandr --output $OUTPUT --rotation $XVERTICAL
xfconf-query -c xfce4-desktop -p /backdrop/screen0/monitor0/image-path --create -t string -s "$VERTICAL_WALL"
else
xrandr --output $OUTPUT --rotation $XHORIZONTAL
xfconf-query -c xfce4-desktop -p /backdrop/screen0/monitor0/image-path --create -t string -s "$HORIZONTAL_WALL"
fi

To use:

Copy and paste this into a new file called "rotater" in your home directory.
Change the options in the "#defaults" section to suit:
- VERTICAL rotation value - one of the 4 following values: 0=normal, 90=left, 180=inverted, 270=right
- HORIZONTAL rotation value - one of the 4 following values: 0=normal, 90=left, 180=inverted, 270=right
- OUTPUT - the screen being output to - can be obtained by running the following command: xrandr -q | grep " connected"
- VERTICAL_WALL - the path and name to the wallpaper you want to use when the screen is in vertical orientation
- HORIZONTAL_WALL - the path and name to the wallpaper you want to use when the screen is in horizontal orientation
Save the file.
Make the file executable. From a command line:

chmod +x ~/rotater
Test it from the command line by running the following command in a terminal window:

~/rotater
...since it is a toggle script (it will toggle between the two orientations and change the wallpaper), running the script repeatedly should toggle between the two orientations.
And since this is a toggle script it will work best if attached to a keyboard shortcut. Go to Settings Manager -> Keyboard -> Application Shortcuts and create a new shortcut (for the command, make sure you enter the full path to the command - "/home/USER/rotater" - where USER is your username).