LinuxQuestions.org - Change background on Xorg (xfce)

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Change background on Xorg (xfce)

Hello,
I'd like to change my background on xfce xorg computer. Could you please tell me name of some configuration file or directory where it's specified? Thanks.

(Just in case, I am running Xubuntu 10.10).

I'm fairly certain that if you right-click on the background, one of the options will indicate it lets you change the desktop background.

Alternately, if memory serves (I'm using regular Ubuntu with GNOME, not Xfce), if you click on the little mouse menu, then the settings submenu, there should be a "desktop settings" item, or something similar.

Yes. You want "Desktop Settings" in the right-click menu. You can also run xfce4-settings-manager in a terminal and choose the "Desktop" item.

Thanks for your reply. Although, I was searching for file/dir where path/image is located, since I am trying to change desktop background through console remotely with SSH.

Some googling suggests that the config info is stored in ~/.config, so look under there. On my system, I have xfce4 and xfce4-session as subdirectories of .config, but I can't find any information relating to the background (though I did find the file containing my own keyboard shortcuts). In any case, have a look. You might also want to interact with the Xfce developers, via their forums at http://forum.xfce.org/.

Xfce keeps its list of backgrounds/wallpapers/backdrops in /home/c/.config/xfce4/desktop/backdrop.list. It chooses one at random during session initialisation. You may be able to do what you want by writing the desired image's full path into backdrop.list as the only image file path and running xfdesktop --reload.

Thanks for your answers. I followed hints in your posts, and finally found the file: "/home/user/.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce4-desktop.xml". But, my problem actually remains, since even when I change values specified there, desktop won't reload. I tried pressing Ctrl+R (works for icon positions), and running "xfdesktop --reload". Am I missing something? or is there any other command to reload desktop?

On Slackware64 13.1 with Xfce 4.6.1 the equivalent file is ~/.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/xfce4-desktop.xml (it would be nice to know what that xfce-perchannel-xml directory is for) and it contains:

Code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>



<channel name="xfce4-desktop" version="1.0">

  <property name="backdrop" type="empty">

    <property name="screen0" type="empty">

      <property name="monitor0" type="empty">

        <property name="image-path" type="string" value="/home/c/.config/xfce4/desktop/backdrop.list"/>

        <property name="last-image" type="string" value="/usr/share/xfce4/backdrops/xfce-stripes.png"/>

        <property name="last-single-image" type="string" value="/usr/share/xfce4/backdrops/xfce-stripes.png"/>

        <property name="last-image-list" type="string" value="/home/c/.config/xfce4/desktop/backdrop.list"/>

        <property name="image-style" type="int" value="5"/>

      </property>

    </property>

  </property>

  <property name="desktop-icons" type="empty">

    <property name="file-icons" type="empty">

      <property name="show-home" type="bool" value="false"/>

      <property name="show-filesystem" type="bool" value="false"/>

      <property name="show-trash" type="bool" value="false"/>

      <property name="show-removable" type="bool" value="false"/>

    </property>

  </property>

</channel>

xfdesktop -reload does change the backdrop to a random image from /home/c/.config/xfce4/desktop/backdrop.list

It may be worth creating backdrop.list interactively in case consistent changes are required in more files than xfce4-desktop.xml alone. "Desktop settings" -> Images -> "Image list".

Thanks for your reply. I am using "single image" option, what excuses absence of "/home/c/.config/xfce4/desktop/backdrop.list" file. Although, I still can't change desktop backround, xfdesktop -reload does not work for me, and I am not much good with strace too.

No idea from me, I'm afraid. catkin? SkyerSK, have you also tried the Xfce forums?

Quote:

Originally Posted by SkyerSK (Post 4210385)

xfdesktop -reload will only change the background if it has more than one to choose from so it will not work with the "single image" option. If you want only one background -- a different one from the one you have now -- why don't you change it via "Desktop settings" -> Images? And why do you want to know the configuration file or directory where it's specified?

Nylex: No, haven't tried them so far, but I wanted to try solving it here, since I like having less accounts.
catkin: I want to change background remotely, through SSH. Not like I can't access computer physically, but I'd rather do it through network. Another thing is that I don't like things "being magic", just searching for "how does it work".

Thanks for your replies.

OK. You could try manually editing <property name="last-single-image" type="string" value="<whatever>"/> and running xfdesktop -reload; if that works you could script it. Finding out how things work is sometimes a mixture of guesswork, experimentation and not being worried about breaking things (so always make sure you can get back to how things were before experimenting).

Yeah, thanks for advice. I've been having some problems with computer, and it took me while to get back here and scroll through posts. As far as I remember, I tried that, but it didn't work. But I am actually back to Gnome desktop, so topic is not actually. Thanks for your participation, and sorry for reviving old post. (Not sure if mark it as solved, but if anyone knows answer, feel free to post).