[SOLVED] wallpaper, how worketh ye o wallpaper

[fotonix]

With 17.1 came some wonderful enhancements like the bootup showing a slideshow of backgrounds. Also it is great to see some of the old favourites in wallpapers being added back in. I have however, reached a point at which my own images are equal or better over half the time. I want to add a folder under /usr/share/backgrounds which would contain my images. Maybe yeah even release some and see them used in 17.2 or another release.

I added my own subfolder under /usr/share/backgrounds - nothing. It does not come up in the desktop management for wallpapers, despite identical permissions on files and folder as the Mint ones. Someone somewhere suggested a $HOME/backgrounds folder instead. Tried that - also nothing (and varieties like$HOME/Backgrounds and $HOME/.backgrounds .. same zero result.

This is Linux (and Mint to boot), not Microsoft or Apple where secrets abound. Can someone please reveal the non-obvious sauce to add a folder of one's own images under /usr/share/backgrounds? The installer / updater does it, somehow - so it can be done. What scripts or config utils must be invoked and in which order? What files should be changed / edited?

[WinterTroubles]

Unless you specifically want to have those backgrounds in a system folder, then you may have over complicated it..

If you open the 'Backgrounds' menu window and take a look at the left pane, with the folders of mint wallpaper in, there is a + and a - at the bottom.. Simply click the + and add any pre-existing directory from your system.

I'll be honest now and say I'm not sure what happens between users on a multi user system.. which is probably why you're asking about usr/share now I come to think of it

[WinterTroubles]

I've just realised you may also be interested in adding images to the MDM slideshow, if so, then after a little digging I believe you would need to look at this conf file

Code: Select all

/usr/share/mdm/html-themes/Mint-X/slideshow.conf

that is headed by instructions on how to add images.

I've not tested it myself, so obviously use suitable caution

[JosephM]

Look in /usr/share/cinnamon-background-properties. You will find .xml files in there that the background settings uses to get info about each background or folder of backgrounds.

[WinterTroubles]

Hi JosephM

I have added a folder of backgrounds using the GUI method I stated above and when checking /usr/share/cinnamon-background-properties there is no .xml file or other mention of it, so the link to my folder specified in the GUI must be stored somewhere else. This obviously doesn't prevent me using my own backgrounds, I simply mention it for clarity

[WinterTroubles]

Ok.. the links to user specified folders are stored in /home/<user name>/.cinnamon/backgrounds/user-folders.lst which is a plain text document simply listing paths to specified folders

[JosephM]

Yeah, sorry for the misunderstanding. The cinnamon-background-properties folder is where the system supplied wallpapers are stored. They are picked up by the background settings and are available to all users.

[WinterTroubles]

Yeah, sorry for the misunderstanding...

No worries.. Prompted me to go digging an learn something new

[fotonix]

Thank you to all for weighing in on this. I hope this discussion can be a good reference in future for others who may encounter this. Adding one's own images to the MDM rotation - now that will be tried out too! A few of my machines are multi-user, so getting the images into system folders will be a great advantage.

[WinterTroubles]

A few of my machines are multi-user, so getting the images into system folders will be a great advantage.

Just to be clear, as you've marked this solved, I'm not sure we've directly provided the solution for a multi user environment.. unless we've managed to post something I've not fully understood.

However, copying the /user-folders.lst file created in one users /home/<user name>/.cinnamon/backgrounds to each of the other users relevant locations should provide you with the opportunity to simply use one 'master' backgrounds folder for all users. Providing the file permissions are set correctly of course.