- Linux Mint 19 How to Change Wallpaper Automatically
- Step #1: Automatic Change of Desktop Backgrounds in Cinnamon
- Step #2: Change Wallpaper in Linux Mint 19 Mate
- Step #3: Variety — Automatic Downloader and manager for Wallpapers
- Step #4: Shotwell — Picture organizer and Wallpaper changer
- Step #5: Wallch — Wallpaper changer for Linux Mint
- How to Change Background of Linux Mint 21
- How to Change the Background of Linux Mint 21
- 1: Change the Background Using the Linux Mint Wallpapers
- 2: Change the Background Using the Files in Linux Mint
- 3: Change the Background Through the Browser
- 4: Change the Background Using the Terminal on Linux Mint
- Bottom Line
- About the author
- Zainab Rehman
- Best Applications to Manage Wallpapers in Ubuntu Linux
- Best Wallpaper Apps for Ubuntu
- 1. Wallch
- 2. Variety
- 3. Shotwell
- 4. WonderWall
- 5. Wallpaper Downloader
- What’s your favorite?
Linux Mint 19 How to Change Wallpaper Automatically
Looking for a wallpaper changer, picture slideshow, automatic downloader and manager for desktop backgrounds for Linux Mint? If so in this article you can find several options how to achieve that.
Step #1: Automatic Change of Desktop Backgrounds in Cinnamon
By default Linux Mint Cinnamon includes a background slideshow and collection of fancy images. In order to use default wallpaper changer you need to follow:
- Right click on Desktop
- Change Desktop Background
- Select folder for the slide show
- or import new one from the plus sign
- time delay
- random order
- Zoom
- Stretched
Step #2: Change Wallpaper in Linux Mint 19 Mate
Mate edition doesn’t support automatic change of wallpapers. If you like to have this feature you need to install additional software which is described in the next steps. You need to choose one of them or a combination — depending on what you like to have.
Changing the Wallpaper picture can be done by:
Step #3: Variety — Automatic Downloader and manager for Wallpapers
Variety is an advanced wallpaper changer, downloader, and manager which can be used in Linux Mint. It supports a variety of sources for wallpapers, including local files, media RSS feeds (Picasa, deviantART, etc.) and online services:
- Flickr
- Wallhaven.cc
- NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day — I really like this one
Works well in both Cinnamon and Mate. This software has many options and features which makes it best choice for automatic background manager and changer.
The package is available from the Software Manager. Once the package is installed you can use it to setup automatic download and change for wallpapers.
- Start Variety Preferences — from the menu or the status bar
- Tab General
- Change wallpaper every — select time for image rotation
- Images — select which sources to be used for images or add new ones like comics from reddit.com or Wallhaven.cc
- Download a wallpaper every — select folder and time interval for downloading
- Apply Filters like: Oil painting, Pencil sketch, Grayscale etc
- Random quotes — simple and customizable. If you like to use another way for quotes in Linux Mint you can check this article: Linux Mint and Quotes Desklet
Step #4: Shotwell — Picture organizer and Wallpaper changer
Shotwell is a digital photo organizer designed for the GNOME desktop environment which can be used in Mate and Cinnamon. Images are imported and organized in collections in different ways.
It can be installed with package manager or by using next commands:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:yg-jensge/shotwell sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install shotwell
If you want to set automatic wallpaper change by using Shotwell you need to follow:
- Open Shotwell
- Import pictures for the Picture Slideshow
- Select the imported pictures
- File — from the menu
- Set as Desktop Slideshow
- Last step is to select
- time for the picture rotation
- Home and/or Lock Screen
Step #5: Wallch — Wallpaper changer for Linux Mint
Wallch is another automatic background changer for keeping your desktop fresh and new. It has basic features related to desktop background management.
In 2020 the package seems discontinued and different users report problems related to crashes or no change of the background. The package is available in software manager:
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How to Change Background of Linux Mint 21
The wallpaper that usually appears behind the icons on your desktop is known as the desktop background. When you set up a new Linux system, it has the default Linux Mint background image mostly users are familiar with. Although it looks good, users want to try their favorite images as the desktop background to make it more attractive. You can set the background of your desktop to any picture, color, or slideshow. In this guide, we will show you the different ways to change the background of Linux Mint 21.
How to Change the Background of Linux Mint 21
There are four different ways to change the image used for your background:
1: Change the Background Using the Linux Mint Wallpapers
The Linux Mint Cinnamon by default has a collection of images. To change the background for your background, repeat the following steps:
Step 1: Click on the Linux Mint icon and search for the Backgrounds:
Step 2: Choose the background image from the default image collection and single-click on it to set it as your desktop background:
You can also add the images from the subdirectory of your device by clicking on the plus (+) icon and choosing the respective folder:
2: Change the Background Using the Files in Linux Mint
Setting the background on the Linux Mint is easy, navigate to the picture folder and right-click on any image you want to set for your background, and click on Set as Wallpaper:
3: Change the Background Through the Browser
Additionally, you can go to your browser and search for the wallpapers. If you don’t want to download the image you can right-click on the image for setting it on your desktop background:
4: Change the Background Using the Terminal on Linux Mint
The other way to access the background images of your device is from the terminal. To do so execute the following command and you will get a path of the directory with the default-background image:
Copy the path and paste it into the files folder:
The set of different images will appear on your screen, choose any image and right-click on it to set it as wallpaper.
Bottom Line
There are a number of ways to make your Linux Mint desktop attractive. First choose a good wallpaper for your desktop background, you can find many websites offering various wallpapers on your browser. Once you find the wallpaper download it and follow the above steps to make the desktop background perfect for you.
About the author
Zainab Rehman
I’m an author by profession. My interest in the internet world motivates me to write for Linux Hint and I’m here to share my knowledge with others.
Best Applications to Manage Wallpapers in Ubuntu Linux
All Ubuntu versions have a set of default wallpapers that comes with it. You can easily change the background in Ubuntu or choose to create a slideshow of the wallpapers to shuffle the background image at a certain time interval.
But if you want new pictures as your wallpaper and want them to change periodically in Ubuntu, you can’t just move them to the system’s wallpaper folder and be done with it.
For that, you need to edit an XML file and trust me it’s not a user-friendly task. Instead, you can use dedicated applications to manage your wallpapers in Ubuntu to save time and get the features you need.
Best Wallpaper Apps for Ubuntu
The list is in no particular order. The features of these applications are more or less the same, differing only slightly. You can choose to use any of these based on your preference.
1. Wallch
Wallch is a short form for wallpaper changer. You can browse through any directory with images in it, and it will let you choose the wallpapers or create a slideshow that changes automatically.
All of this is configurable. In addition to the wallpaper slideshow, it also provides some additional features like:
- Selecting a wallpaper
- Create a wallpaper slideshow
- Display ‘picture of the day’ from Wikipedia to get surprise wallpapers
- Set live earth as desktop background
- Live website to set the desktop background (set website feed as desktop background)
Officially, it mentions support for GNOME, MATE, Xfce, and LXDE desktop environments. So, if you want to try it on other desktop environments, it may/may not work.
While you could set clock wallpapers, I couldn’t find the file online needed to set it anymore when updating this article.
You can directly install it from the software center of your Linux distribution.
If you want to use the terminal, use the following command to get it installed:
To uninstall it, use the following command:
2. Variety
Variety is a feature-rich wallpaper changer focusing on automatic wallpaper change functionality.
If you are running out of ideas for your new wallpaper, Variety can be your best bet. Because it allows you to fetch wallpapers from various online sources including Flickr, Wallpapers.net, NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day, and more.
You can choose to apply effects, and even customize the appearance of wallpapers available. In addition to the customization options, you also get an icon in the system tray to quickly cycle through wallpapers or change your preferences.
Overall, it offers the following features:
- Change wallpaper manually or automatically
- Change wallpaper at start
- Add random effects to wallpaper
- Show random quotes on the wallpaper
- Support for digital clock
- Get wallpapers from various online sources
- Drag and drop from URL
- Clipboard monitoring to automatically fetch images from URL and store it (from selected sources or all)
- Sync wallpapers between computers
- Get personalized wallpapers recommendation
- Light on resources
To get it installed, you can look for it in the software center. In either case, you can use the following commands in the terminal:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:peterlevi/ppa sudo apt update sudo apt install variety-slideshow
To remove Variety, use the following commands:
sudo apt remove variety sudo add-apt-repository -r ppa:peterlevi/ppa
3. Shotwell
Shotwell is one of the best photo management software available for Linux. While it isn’t primarily a wallpaper manager app, it gives you the ability to set a wallpaper background or slideshow.
It starts by importing all your photos from a specific directory, and then you can select any picture to set as a desktop background.
If you select multiple images, you can set them to change automatically as slideshows.
You can install it directly through the software center or just type in the following command in the terminal:
sudo apt install shotwell
4. WonderWall
WonderWall supports most of the popular desktop environments out there. It lets you customize the options as per your desktop environment and screen.
You can choose to hide NSFW wallpapers and anime wallpapers if you do not want random wallpapers to pop up. A download location can be selected to save all your favorite wallpapers.
In either case, you need to download the wallpapers from the selection before applying or cropping to set them as your desktop background.
Unlike some other applications, this is freeware. So, you will have to purchase a subscription to continue using all the features.
You can find a Flatpak package and a Snap for WonderWall. Choose any of them on your Linux desktop to get started.
5. Wallpaper Downloader
Wallpaper Downloader is a simple and yet useful application to download new wallpapers and set them to change automatically as well.
You can customize the order of wallpapers and choose to download from sources like DeviantArt, Wallpaper fusion, Unsplash, and more. If you want, you can set a filter to pick wallpapers based on your keywords or avoid wallpapers that you don’t like.
Wallpaper Downloader is available as a Flatpak package and a Snap for various Linux distributions. If you want to use the terminal via a PPA, type in these commands to install it:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:eloy-garcia-pca/wallpaperdownloader sudo apt update sudo apt install wallpaperdownloader
SyncWall is another wallpaper changer application for Ubuntu and Linux Mint. Apart from providing the basic features of changing wallpapers, it has a unique feature that allows you to synchronize wallpaper change between several workstations on the local network. Its features can be listed as follows:
- change wallpaper at start-up, by interval or at fixed time
- define system hot-keys to change wallpaper manually.
- Basic multi-monitor support in order to share the wallpaper across screens
- add special effects (emboss, edge, blur, …) to the displayed wallpaper.
- rate images in order to display them more often when random order is selected
- Several resizing methods and background filling
- Network synchronization of wallpaper change
- live wallpapers
- Available for Linux and Window
To install SyncWall in Ubuntu and Linux Mint, you can use the following commands in the terminal:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8 sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install syncwall
To remove SyncWall, use the following commands:
sudo apt-get remove syncwall
sudo add-apt-repository -r ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8
What’s your favorite?
Of course, if you prefer manually changing your wallpaper, I get it. But, thanks to these applications, you can make a good collection of wallpaper without putting in any manual effort.
Do you often change the wallpaper? If yes, which application do you use to change desktop background automatically in Ubuntu or Linux Mint?
Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.