I want to create a dynamic desktop, i.e. a screensaver or a movie instead of static image as a background of a transparent terminal.

I can make this dynamic background by using xwinwrap,e.g. for movie

xwinwrap -ni -o 0.6 -fs -s -st -sp -b -nf -- mplayer -wid WID -quiet <moviefilename>

And also can set the terminal transparent by making change in Edit > Profile Preference by clicking with mouse or by using command like

aterm -tr

(may be can be done with xterm also, I don't know.)

But I found that the transparent terminal doesn't show the movie in background, rather it shows the earlier default static image of the background!


Any help?

Thanks in advance.

A 'transparent' terminal is only really transparent if you're using a compositing window manager, like Compiz.

1 members found this post helpful.

I have compiz installed. But I don't know how I can use for this purpose.

Do you have the CompizConfig Settings Manager installed ?

If not, try to install it with

or through Ubuntu's app installer (search for ccsm).

Then you'll have tons of settings to try, particularly those about windows.

Yeah. It's saying :

compizconfig-settings-manager is already the newest version


Then?

It should appear in System-Preferences-CompizConfig Settings Manager.

Open it and from there you can configure nearly every parameter of every Compiz effect.
But as I never went further than just taking a look, I can't help you with the details.

Let us know if you found something here !

Yeah. I have it.

But couldn't yet figure out how to set a terminal transparent !

I found out how to do that but you will have to do it every time you open a new terminal (or any other window, this always works).

I don't remember if it works with a default Compiz configuration but try this :

- Put your cursor on the window on which you want to change transparency
- Hold the alt key
- Scroll with your mouse up or down

Transparency should change !

If not :

- Go to CCSM
- Activate "Opacity, Luminosity and Saturation" and click it to configure
- Under Opacity tab, choose the behaviour (<alt>Button4 and <alt>Button5 if you want to do it with mouse scrolling) you want

It seems to be a way you can set specific windows settings, on the same tab, but when I tried it, all my windows became completely transparent, even after reboot.
If this happens to you, open a new console by holding ctrl-alt-F2, login and execute :

Return to the normal screen by ctrl-alt-F6 (it was F6 for me, try others if it doesn't work) and try to get back to the original settings. Then logout-login, or reboot.

Hope it works !

Well I got it finally !!

So I want to append the steps that I did with compiz so it helps others and myself in future too.

So I did the following.

1. System > Preferences > Appearance > Visual Effects

Choose "Normal"

2. System > Preferences > CompizConfig System Manager

Go to Opacity, Brightness and Saturation plug-in

Go to Opacity and 'add' the follwing in Windows :

Tooltip | Menu | PopupMenu | DropdownMenu

And choose some no. , e.g. 85 as Window Values

3. Activate the plug-in

4. If this doesn't still work, you may need to activate some other plug-ins.
I'm not sure coz some plug-ins were activated from the beginning in my system.

Thus you can make any terminal or any other window as transparent as you want by slowly scrolling down the mouse scroll
button by press+holding the Alt-key.


5. Now the dynamic part! You still may see the Desktop Wallpaper behind your transparent terminal/window even though you are running a movie on the background (by using xwinwrap or rootwin command). So you need to do a trick. You choose a solid color, preferably a dark color, e.g. black as your Desktop wallpaper (since normal distribution may not have a blank wallpaper.). So this dark will serev like a thin shade over the running movie on the background. You can re-adjust that by changing contrast/brigthness within the mplayer.

======================

The transparent effect can be also done by simply modifying the treminal/konsole profile. And you can follow the same trick to see movie in the background as a well. However, you won't get that much flexibility and control that compiz compiz produces.

Thanks to truboy for giving me the idea of "compiz".


Enjoy !!