I was looking for a solution to assign different backgrounds to each workspace. I use them as visual indicators of what workspace I'm on, so it's more of a workflow issue for me vs. an aesthetic one.
I ran across this tutorial, but felt it was a bit involved and manual, so I decided to write something a bit more full-featured. Thus, switch-desk was born.
It uses symlinks to treat each $HOME/Desktop and background as separate for each workspace. It only works via custom keybinds in Mint's Keyboard app. It does not work with mouse selection of workspaces (such as via Expo)
Anyway, full details are in the README on github. It works well for me and I thought I'd put it out there for others to use as well.
Feedback/suggestions welcome.
Release: Script to manage separate backgrounds and desktops per workspace
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Release: Script to manage separate backgrounds and desktops per workspace
Last edited by LockBot on Sun Mar 10, 2024 10:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Release: Script to manage separate backgrounds and desktops per workspace
Starred! 
Should this be in the Tutorials subforum?
Should this be in the Tutorials subforum?
Re: Release: Script to manage separate backgrounds and desktops per workspace
Thanks for acknowledging my tutorial, but I really wonder what you mean by it being "a bit involved and manual". And, how is your solution "more full-featured"? I can see that it has more checks, but I think they are redundant. For example, every time your script is run, it checks that certain global variables are defined. It also checks which environment it is running in.
Reference my tutorial: viewtopic.php?f=42&t=360221:
[SOLVED] Different Backgrounds, Desktop Icons for Different Workspaces (LM20.x, LM21.x Cinn, Mate, XFCE)
My tutorial explains in detail how to setup desktop folders, prepare scripts and set permissions and prepare the shortcuts. Your script needs all of these steps as well, but left to the user to figure out. My tutorial also explains what the scripts are doing.
When implemented as written in my tutorial, you can press alt-3, for example, to directly switch your display to Workspace 3 with all of its open applications. Desktop icons are switched to what is available in the Desk3 folder and the Background is changed to what you last selected while in Workspace 3. From Workspace 3, you can use alt-right(arrow) to switch to Workspace 4 or alt-left to switch to Workspace 2.
It looks like your script just moves left and right.
Reference my tutorial: viewtopic.php?f=42&t=360221:
[SOLVED] Different Backgrounds, Desktop Icons for Different Workspaces (LM20.x, LM21.x Cinn, Mate, XFCE)
My tutorial explains in detail how to setup desktop folders, prepare scripts and set permissions and prepare the shortcuts. Your script needs all of these steps as well, but left to the user to figure out. My tutorial also explains what the scripts are doing.
When implemented as written in my tutorial, you can press alt-3, for example, to directly switch your display to Workspace 3 with all of its open applications. Desktop icons are switched to what is available in the Desk3 folder and the Background is changed to what you last selected while in Workspace 3. From Workspace 3, you can use alt-right(arrow) to switch to Workspace 4 or alt-left to switch to Workspace 2.
It looks like your script just moves left and right.