I set out to code a lightweight script that will make your desktop background change at a preset interval. It changes the background with a fade turning your wallpaper into a slideshow. Having a desktop slideshow seems to be a desired feature in Elementary OS and this method does it using hardly any memory. This should work on any Gtk based distro but I’ve only used it on Elementary OS. Even if you don’t want a slideshow you can use the script to load a random background on each boot up or whenever you run the script. Just use the –bootonly option.

You can find the script on my Github or do a simple wget put the script wherever you want:

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/agronick/Wallpaper-Slideshow/master/wallpaper_slideshow.sh



Once it is saved just set it to executable with:



chmod +x ./wallpaper_slideshow.sh



There are a few parameters you can use:

Usage: ./wallpaper_slideshow.sh [FOLDER] [MINUTES]…

[FOLDER] Set a folder with images. If it has other files they will be ignored.

[MINUTES] (Optional default:2) Set the number of minutes that you want to wait before changing to the next image.

[–bootonly] Set this if you want to change to a random image on boot and then exit.

[–wait] Do a delay of however minutes you set MINUTES to before switching to the first image.

[–log] Display information to the console and log it to syslog.

[–help] Display a help message and then exit.

If you just want to see it cycle the default Elementary OS wallpapers every two minutes run ./wallpaper_slideshow.sh without any parameters.

Here is a sample command: ./wallpaper_slideshow.sh ~/Pictures/Backgrounds/ 2 --log

Once you found a setup you like you can append –makecmd to show you a command you can copy and paste into Elementary OS’s startup application settings.

Setting it up for startup in Elementary OS

You need to go to Applications > System Tools > System Settings > Applications > Startup

Once there click the + in the bottom left. You can then paste the command given to you by –makecmd in the highlighted box.

That’s it. You’ll now have a slideshow wallpaper on your desktop. The script is programmed to load a random set of images and display them as desktop wallpaper sequentially. When it gets to the end it will shuffle the list and start displaying from the beginning.

Update: If you’ve downloaded in the past you probably want to redownload. Elementary OS wasn’t killing the script when it ended a session. Now the script will kill itself if it spends 10 minutes disconnected to a desktop.

Update2: The script now supports changing your ElementaryOS’ login screen. There is a post detailing the changes.

If you are looking for a great collection of wallpaper you can find one here: http://chromecastbg.alexmeub.com/ Click Download in the top right to get them all.