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I am running Mint 13 with Cinnamon 1.6. I would like my desktop wallpaper to automatically change depending on the time of day. So, the first thing that comes to mind is setting up a cron job to do it for me. Problem is, I don't know how to change the wallpaper from script / terminal.

What I would like to know:
1) How would one change the background from terminal?
2) Is the there already a built-in way of doing this?

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What's your DE? – warl0ck Dec 28 '12 at 9:30
@warl0ck - Cinnamon 1.6 – aggregate1166877 Dec 28 '12 at 10:04

4 Answers

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There is something called DesktopNova.

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In terms of the x window system you want to change the background of the root window. The "builtin"-tool to change the settings of this window is xsetroot. Unfortunately it's a bit outdated, for instance it only supports to choose bitmaps for the background-image.

I prefer the tool hsetroot over xsetroot. Both tools must be used from the command line.

Moreover I can imagine that you can adjust settings of the root window via the x resource database but i can't find related informations by now.

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hsetroot seems to be exactly what I want, but it's not setting my desktop background; instead, it sets the background of the workspaces selection when I hover over the hot corner. Any ideas? – aggregate1166877 Dec 28 '12 at 11:18
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Try this:

xsetbg /path/to/wallpaper.jpg
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Thanks, but it does not affect the wallpaper. It does however change the screen shown when logging out. I'm starting to think that Cinnamon treats x11 settings in a different way than other environments do. – aggregate1166877 Dec 28 '12 at 19:26
@user1166877: Wierd, it works for me. I've used Metacity and Openbox as window managers, but I think this is "below" that. Check out precisely what I use if that could offer a clue as to what differs. – Emanuel Berg Dec 28 '12 at 22:58
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Works for me on Linuxmint 13 with Cinnamon 1.4.

  • cinnamon-settings desktop # in terminal > Untick "Let file manager handle the desktop"
  • change your wallpaper with feh 
    feh --bg-fill ~/Images/my_wallpaper.png
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