After trying for a few weeks to setup xplanet, I've decided to scrap it. I just can't get it to work and I don't see much in the way of recent documentation for people, such as me, who have limited experience with such things.

The tutorials on making xplanet more similar to Desktop Earth are seemingly old and no longer apply.

With that said, I'd like to know if there are alternatives that would allow for a dynamic earth wallpaper under gnome. Is this possible? If so, how did you do it?

This is of course very minor in the grand scheme of things but it would be great since I ran desktop earth for over a year and I miss it. Thanks for your consideration.

You have something against just using desktop earth?
It has a free online version... thus...

#!/bin/sh
today=`date "+%s"`
wget -O Current.jpg "http://codefromthe70s.org/cgi/desktopearthgen.exe\?width=1280&height=768&center=5&clouds=1&utc=${today}"
sleep 600
./earth.sh

And just set your wallpaper to Current.jpg
Ubuntu changes the wallpaper every time the file changes. So, done.

Also, the program ran fine in wine when I tried it? So not sure why you couldnt just run it and use it normally. But the script takes much less resource.

I am sorry. I am still learning when it comes to linux. This script; is it something that I must setup as a scheduled task or is this a one time execution from me? I noticed the "sleep 600" entry and thus I am naturally curious.

To expand a little more on this, I was looking for a self-contained application as there are times when I am not on a network.

Thank you very much for this info. I am now on the right track.