gnome-animated-background-xml

this is a shell script that creates an animated / dynamic background from a list of images
it uses .xml files, the same method many distros use for creating dynamic backgrounds that change on time of day or weather

NOTE:

this tool does not work with Gnome 42 dark-mode yet, this will be working as soon as the C-lang rewrite is finished
Update: it seems to be inconsistant? if you have this issue, try to delete the background and create it again, that might fix it.

usage:

./gnome-animated-background.sh path/to/image1.png path/to/image2.png

example:

./gnome-animated-background.sh -t 1 -centered ./nyancat1.png ./nyancat2.png ./nyancat3.png ./nyancat4.png ./nyancat5.png ./nyancat6.png

untitled.1.mp4

manual

timing

-t n set a time for the upcoming list of images of "n" seconds
ex: -t 10800 for 3 hours
ex: -t 0.03 for 30fps (1/30) this is a global value, all frames will stay on screen for the same amount of time

default: 4 seconds per frame

!! for anything below 1seconf per frame, the speed background extension is required.

background modes

any options must be placed before any images
default: 'zoom'

-centered set the background to be centered
-wallpaper set background to "wallpaper" mode
-scaled set background to scaled mode
-stretched set background to stretched mode
-spanned set background to spanned mode

help

background not applying:

if the previously applied background has the same name as the new one, just log out and log back in
otherwise set it manually using this command (replace $filename with what you named it):
dconf write /org/gnome/desktop/background/picture-uri "'file:///home/$USER/.local/share/backgrounds/$filename.xml'"

pkexec is not working:

use argument --sudo or -s to use sudo instead of pkexec

my desktop environment refuses to load:

this means something f-ed up with the .xml file, this can be fixed by temporarily replacing the background with another image:

press ctl + alt + f2 to get into a terminal
login
type: dconf write /org/gnome/desktop/background/picture-uri "'file:///home/$USER/path/to/image.png'"
(replace path/to/image.png with the path to any image)
press ctl + alt + f1 to get back to the login screen
consider opening a GitHub issue if this keeps happening when applying the background