HOWTO: XPlanet

[Psycho275]

First of all, XPlanet displays the current daylight conditions in the world, as you desktop background.

Screenshot


First of all, install XPlanet:

$ sudo apt-get install xplanet

Once installed, you have two options:

1) Navigate to the xplanet folder and download some images to use for XPlanet. You will need to replace USERNAME with your user name.

$ cd /home/USERNAME/.xplanet/images/
$ wget http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/images/2433/land_shallow_topo_2048.jpg
$ mv land_shallow_topo_2048.jpg earth.jpg
$ wget http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/images/1438/earth_lights_lrg.jpg
$ mv earth_lights_lrg.jpg night.jpg

or

2) Install xplanet-images (thanks to mike998 for the info):

$ sudo apt-get install xplanet-images

Next, we need to stop nautilus from controlling the desktop:
Applications > System Tools > Configuration Editor
In the Configuration Editor, go to apps > nautilus > preferences and untick "show_desktop".

Finally, we need to start XPlanet when we log in:
System > Preferences > Sessions
Click on the "Startup Programs" tab, and click on "Add". Enter "xplanet" (without the quotes) into the "Startup Command" text box, and click OK.

Log out and back in, and you should see an image of earth as your background.

[mike998]

You can install the xplanet-images package if you want rather than downloading the pictures.

Good how-to - it was the not displaying background that I had missed previously.

[Psycho275]

You can install the xplanet-images package if you want rather than downloading the pictures.

I saw the package when looking for xplanet, but didn't mention it as I haven't tried it yet.

Good how-to - it was the not displaying background that I had missed previously.

Thanks - It took me a little while to figure out how to hide the background. One problem with not allowing nautilus to control the desktop is that it will no longer show icons for removable devices on the desktop automatically, so I now use "Computer" through Nautilus instead to access it.

[kleeman]

To avoid losing my desktop icons I don't use the nautilus change you mention and use instead this script which works with gnome2

http://stef.tvk.rwth-aachen.de/~nazgul/linux-hacks.php

Great idea btw!

[kleeman]

Actually for some reason the script borks so ignore my previous post

[kleeman]

This one works better (you need python installed:


#!/usr/bin/env python

# Script for handling xplanet in Gnome
# Add this script to your "Startup Programs" in the "Sessions" control center applet

import sys, os, time, glob

def main(argv):
#we use /tmp to store image files
originalFilename = '/tmp/xplanet-original.png'

if len(argv) > 1: #called in update mode
# At this point, there will be a two images in /tmp
# We'll delete the old one, and rename the new one
for f in glob.glob('/tmp/xplanet-background-*.png'):
os.remove(f)
#filename includes a timestamp
background = '/tmp/xplanet-background-%d.png' % int(time.time())
#rename the newly generate image
os.rename(originalFilename, background)

#now set the background to the new image (by modifying your gconf database)
os.system('gconftool-2 -t str -s /desktop/gnome/background/picture_filename "%s"' % background)
return

#called in startup mode, set up and start xplanet

#set some options, change here to suit your desires
options = '-geometry 1600x1200 -longitude -74 -latitude 41'

#start xplanet niced
#refresh every 5 minutes, sleep if inactive for 10
#name output image, will get renamed
#re-call this script in update mode after rendering a new image
#run this in the background so the script will exit
startxplanetcommand = '/usr/bin/nice -19 xplanet -wait 300 -hibernate 600 -output %s %s -post_command "handle-xplanet.py update" &' %
(originalFilename, options)
os.system(startxplanetcommand)

if __name__ == '__main__':
main(sys.argv)


You may wish to change the latitude and longtude if you don't live in New York

Then to get it to work:

sudo cp handle-xplanet.py /usr/bin

then (as above)

System > Preferences > Sessions
Click on the "Startup Programs" tab, and click on "Add". Enter "handle-xplanet.py" (without the quotes) into the "Startup Command" text box, and click OK

You may also need to reboot to eliminate previous xplanet instances.

Sorry to hijack the thread

[Psycho275]

Thanks very much for that, kleeman - I'll give it a go tomorrow (it's getting late here!). Don't worry about hijacking the thread - it's useful information!

[Sephiriz]

I don't believe your post maintained the necessary indentation required to run the Python script

Could you possibly provide it as a file?

Also this problem occurs:

  File "/usr/bin/handle-xplanet.py", line 36
    startxplanetcommand = '/usr/bin/nice -19 xplanet -wait 300 -hibernate 600 -output %s %s  -post_command "handle-xplanet.py update" &' %
                                                          ^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax

[Psycho275]

I don't believe your post maintained the necessary indentation required to run the Python script

Could you possibly provide it as a file?

Also this problem occurs:

  File "/usr/bin/handle-xplanet.py", line 36
    startxplanetcommand = '/usr/bin/nice -19 xplanet -wait 300 -hibernate 600 -output %s %s  -post_command "handle-xplanet.py update" &' %
                                                          ^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax

I came across that error too, Sephiriz. I discovered removing the percentage symbol (%) from the end of the line stopped the error occuring, but also seemed to stop the script working too.

[kleeman]

Sorry about that I tried to upload it directly and the uploader would only accept certain files. Anyway here it is as a zip file

move it (as root) to /usr/bin and also

sudo chmod a+x handle-xplanet.py