Linux – X11 controlling root window or setting a window to be the background window (wallpaper)

arch linuxi3linuxwallpaperx11

I would like an animated background image. Or better, to make an application be the background, with no interactivity, so I don't accidentally click on it.

I've seen many discussions about setting images as background, but is there a way to set an arbitrary application as the background window?

I've found this Gifsice snippet on the Arch BBS:
gifsicle --animate --new-window root someAnimatedGif.gif but it just opened a regular window (I'm using i3 with LightDM on Arch).

I've tried executing it when i3 starts (same result as running it from xterm) and putting it in .Xinitrc, which produced nothing.

How/where should I run gifview and is it possible to use another application, such as VLC, as the background window and why does gifview --new-window root not change the root?

Best Answer

I use the following in ~/.config/i3/config:

exec /usr/bin/gifview  --animate -w root /path/to/image.gif

Related Solutions

Setting a program as the wallpaper

You just run a program on the root window. Most screensavers allow you do do that, e.g.:

/usr/lib64/misc/xscreensaver/sundancer2 --root

However, most modern Linux environments run a "desktop" program that covers the whole screen and covers the root window. So you won't see it unless you kill the desktop program.

Ubuntu – Terminal Transparency, Imagemagick, and X11 Root Window Problem

I've had a similar problem with awesome window manager as well as urxvt, when ImageMagick was used to set the background. It got quickly resolved with feedback from the author of awesome - you can see the archive of this conversation on gmane archives - here and further on here.

The solution was to change the background setter and I chose to use habak because it was the lightest one. You can also use other, like feh or Esetroot (belongs to Enlightenment WM). I think I would recommend you to try feh first, since it seems to be packaged for many distros.

Side note: In case someone wanted to try out many different bg-setters, here's a list of those that awsetbg (bg-setting wrapper script from awesome) tries to use:

Esetroot habak feh hsetroot chbg fvwm-root imlibsetroot display qiv xv xsri xli xsetbg wmsetbg xsetroot

Note that some of those only come shipped with bigger packages.

Edit: Looking at xsri manpage, I think it might provide best flexibility for your needs.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Setting a program as the wallpaper

Ubuntu – Terminal Transparency, Imagemagick, and X11 Root Window Problem

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