HOWTO: Finally! How to easily change your desktop to a random file at specified times

[pt123]

I found why it wont work when called in a terminal from another forum.

if you're running ubuntu you may find /bin/sh is symlinked to dash and not bash. sometimes you find weird errors occurring because of that.

So the solution was:

rm /bin/sh
then
ln -s /bin/bash /bin/sh

[pt123]

I changed tweedledee script so that when it looks into a subfolder and if it has no photos then to look for subfolders within the subfolder.

I also added a seconds multiplication to the random number hoping to improve the randomisation.

Here is the script if anyone wants it

#!/bin/bash

# Set your folder with the pics
picsfolder="/media/d/Collection/Wallpapers/"

# Go to your folder with the pics
cd "$picsfolder"

# the seconds is used to get a better randomisation as it is  multiplied to the random number
seconds=`eval date +%s`
echo "$seconds"

# Get the name of a random directory
randomdir=`ls -d */ |sed -n $((RANDOM*seconds%$(ls -d */ |wc -l)+1))p`
echo "$randomdir"

# Go to the selected directory
cd "$randomdir"
numberOfPics=`(ls *.jpg *.png |wc -l)`
echo $numberOfPics
wpPath=""
if [ $numberOfPics -lt 1 ]	# is $X less than $Y ? 
then
	echo "number of pics is less than 1"	
	# Get a random sub Directory because there are no pics in folder	
	randomSubDir=`ls -d */ |sed -n $((RANDOM*seconds%$(ls -d */ |wc -l)+1))p`
	cd "$randomSubDir"
	numberOfSubPics=`(ls *.jpg *.png |wc -l)`
	echo $numberOfSubPics
	randomSubFile=`ls *.jpg *.png |sed -n $((RANDOM*seconds%$numberOfSubPics+1))p`
	echo $randomSubFile
	wpPath="$picsfolder$randomdir$randomSubDir$randomSubFile"
else
	# there are pics in folder dont bother looking for sub directories	
	randomfile=`ls *.jpg *.png |sed -n $((RANDOM*seconds%$numberOfPics+1))p`
	wpPath="$picsfolder$randomdir$randomfile"
fi
echo $wpPath



# start of gconftool command and set the desktop
gconftool-2 -t str --set /desktop/gnome/background/picture_filename "$wpPath"

[tweedledee]

I changed tweedledee script so that when it looks into a subfolder and if it has no photos then to look for subfolders within the subfolder.

I also added a seconds multiplication to the random number hoping to improve the randomisation.

Here is the script if anyone wants it

Progress! I don't actually use the multiple directories (at least to date), but I'm glad you found it useful enough to improve upon it. I've updated my post to point to your changes.

[pt123]

A new script to change the wallpaper. What it does is grabs all the images from your wallpaper folder including sub directories. Then it creates a list and saves it to your hard disk. Then it randomly chooses a WP from the list. Whenever you run it checks to see if the number images in your list matches the number of images in your WP folder, if not it saves the updated list to disk.

#!/bin/bash

# Set your folder with the pics
picsfolder="/media/main/Wallpapers/"

#Set the Path to the Wallpaper list will be created
wplistpath="/home/username/wplist.txt"


#go to the picture directory
cd "$picsfolder"

#load the list of pics to a variable
wpDirList=`(find . -regex ".*\(jpg\|jpeg\|gif\|png\|svg\)$"  -type f)`
#find the number of pics in the WP dir based on the extension
numberOfPicsDir=`echo "$wpDirList" | wc -l`



# Count number of pics in the Wallpaper list by counting number of lines.
numberOfPicsList=0  #initial lise


#check if the wallpaperlist Exists
if [[ -e "$wplistpath" ]]
    then
       numberOfPicsList=$(wc -l < "$wplistpath")
     else
 	echo "WP list does not exist"
fi
       

# inform the user
echo $numberOfPicsDir" --- "$numberOfPicsList

# if they don't match rewrite the wallpaper list
# this if can be removed and the list can be saved every time

if [ $numberOfPicsDir -ne $numberOfPicsList ]
then
	#save the list to disk 	
	echo -n "$wpDirList" > "$wplistpath"

fi

# Find a random line number in the wallpaper list
r=$((RANDOM % numberOfPicsDir + 1))       # Random number from 1..n.

# print what the line number is 
picPath=`sed -n "$r{p;q;}" "$wplistpath"`   # Print the r'th line.
wpPath="${picsfolder}${picPath#./}"     # #./ crops that substring but it doesn't matter if it left there
echo "$wpPath" 

#set the wallpaper in Gnome Config Editor
gconftool-2 -t str --set /desktop/gnome/background/picture_filename "$wpPath"

Preferably you should break the script into two scripts one that creates the wallpaper list and this should be scheduled to run once a week and the other script that will pick an image from the wallpaper list which can be run every 5,10,15,60 mins etc.

That said I am running this on a list of 3000+ images without problems.

Here is a link to a good Bash FAQ/Tutorial.
http://wooledge.org/mywiki/BashFAQ?a...direct=BashFaq

[cyberbuff]

gksu chmod +x /bin/changewallpaper.sh


gave me:

(gksu:11991): Gtk-WARNING **: Unable to locate theme engine in module_path: "murrine",
/home/dutta/.themes/snow-leopard-mac/gtk-2.0/gtkrc:41: Clearlooks configuration option "sunkenmenu" is not supported and will be ignored.
/home/dutta/.themes/snow-leopard-mac/gtk-2.0/gtkrc:42: Clearlooks configuration option "listviewitemstyle" is not supported and will be ignored.
/home/dutta/.themes/snow-leopard-mac/gtk-2.0/gtkrc:43: Clearlooks configuration option "progressbarstyle" is not supported and will be ignored.

it's not working.

[pt123]

That just gives execute permissions for the script
the errors just on theme
if you try
sudo chmod +x /bin/changewallpaper.sh

it wont show any errors

[~LoKe]

Interesting script. Not something I'd use because I'm very picky about my wallpapers, but it's definitely useful! Nice work.

[yabbadabbadont]

The only problem I see with the script, is that the bash RANDOM built-in is limited to 32K. That just doesn't cut it for a serious wallpaper collector like myself...

(about 60,000 or so)

[pt123]

Thanks Loke,

yabbadabbadont then you can create 2+ lists, depending on how you have kept your wallpapers.

Or you can create 2 random numbers
eg. random1x 3 + (RANDOM2 % 3)
will handle 32,000 X 3 wallpapers.

[aitvo]

I wrote a script 4 years ago to change wallpaper randomly on a timer. This works with Gnome, WindowMaker, Fluxbox, and with a little edit any other desktop environment that can change wallpaper from a commandline.

http://www.stangdude.com/download.pl...dy-1.23.tar.gz

Also, it's page on gnomefiles: http://www.gnomefiles.com/app.php/Background_Buddy and it's homepage: http://www.stangdude.com/news/articles/12519005125776/