How do I set my wallpaper to auto-change periodically? [duplicate]

How do I create a desktop wallpaper slideshow with my own set of images?

  • With the images coming from a pictures folder, or pre-selected
  • With the images displayed in order, or randomly
  • With the images changing every few minutes, or after random periods of time

If you use it to manage your photos and like it easy I recommend to use Shotwell, which should be installed by default.

Open it:

open shotwell

Select the photos you want to be set as background slideshow:

select images

Open FileSet as Desktop Slideshow or press Ctrl+B:

set as slideshow

Adjust time settings:

set time

Done.


Wallch

In software center there are two wallpaper changer - wallch for Gnome-Shell/Unity/Gnome-Classic and Wally for KUbuntu.

Lets concentrate on Wallch.

Sadly the version of Wallch in the software centre is outdated and has many issues especially with 14.04! There's a repository with the recent version.

To install, add the repository (you don't need to do this on 16.04):

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:wallch/wallch-daily

Then install Wallch:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install wallch

Then start from Dash:

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Lets now launch the application preferences:

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Let's untick the bubble notification - its annoying - at the same time you could disable sounds!

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At the same time you can define the start-up options:

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Save - and add a folder of pictures - in this example, use /usr/share/backgrounds for the default wallpapers that come with Ubuntu

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Now we've got two choices:

Start up choice 1

(thanks @Naruto)

keep wallch in in the launcher

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exit wallch and start changing wallpapers

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Start up choice 2

start wallch on login without needing to have a launcher

From the dash:

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Then create a new startup application with the command wallch --constant

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N.B. - for some computers this will not work. The solution is to introduce a delay to the startup of the wallch daemon as per the following Q&A:

Wallch not auto-cycling backgrounds on log in


For 11.04 and previous versions

There's a program for creating wallpaper slideshows called CREBS. Check out this article about it: http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2010/05/crebs-the-ultimate-wallpaper-slideshow-application

A simpler app that has fewer features but is easier to use can be found here: http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php/Wallpaper+Slideshow?content=125178

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