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https://github.com/portnov/xwallpapergui

Simple GUI for use of xwallpaper utility to set wallpapers in multimonitor setup. Based on python+PyQt5.
https://github.com/portnov/xwallpapergui

pyqt5 python wallpaper wallpaper-changer x11

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Simple GUI for use of xwallpaper utility to set wallpapers in multimonitor setup. Based on python+PyQt5.

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README 

        
xwallpapergui README

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



`xwallpapergui` is a GUI for

[xwallpaper](https://github.com/stoeckmann/xwallpaper) utility, aimed to

simplify management of wallpapers in multimonitor setups.



![Screenshot_20240117_182149-1](https://github.com/portnov/xwallpapergui/assets/284644/0340f57f-6742-4ff9-8ac1-9ba616c9e29f)



It is intended for the following usecases:



* You use a laptop as a workstation, and sometimes you want to use laptop's

  monitor together with big external monitors, sometimes not.

* Sometimes you work at office and use external monitor, sometimes you work who

  knows where and use laptop's monitor.

* You go to different places with your laptop, plugging it to different sets of

  monitors. For example, at home you have only one external monitor, so in

  addition to it you enable laptop's monitor, in office you have two big

  external monitors and do not need laptop's monitor, in meeting room you work

  with laptop's monitor and plug a projector.

* You want to use one configuration (set of dotfiles in your `~/.config`) at

  several computers with different monitors.



In such situations, it becomes obvious that the set of wallpapers that you want

to see on your monitors depends on which exactly monitors you use and how are

they positioned. For example, in one place you have one monitor to the right of

another, and in another place you have one monitor on top of another. In one

case you may want to see a panorama landscape, in another the Eifel tower.



`xwallpapergui` uses the notion of "configuration", which is exactly the set of

currently enabled monitors and their positions. One of configurations is used

at each time, others just exist for later usage.



All configurations are stored in `~/.config/xwallpapergui/xwallpapergui.conf`

file.



Assumptions and limitations

---------------------------



As it was mentioned, `xwallpapergui` is using the `xwallpaper` utility. That

utility is not all-powerful. For example, it can not work in environments which

create a special window underneath all other windows, to handle clicks on

desktop, show desktop icons and manage wallpapers themeselves. Among such

environments are Gnome, KDE/Plasma, LXQt and so on.



Usage

-----



If you simply launch `xwallpapergui.py`, it will show a GUI window, allowing

you to see existing configurations and edit them.

At the top of window, there is a combobox showing all existing configurations.

Currently used configuration is marked with `[*]` sign.

It is possible to give more meaningful name to configuration by use of "Rename"

button.



When you launch `xwallpapergui` the first time, or the first time with this

specific set of monitors, it will automatically create a new configuration and

allow to edit it.



In the middle it shows all displays that exist in the selected configuration,

positioned according to xrandr settings. Each screen shows a preview of

wallpaper you configured for it (or just a green rectangle if the wallpaper was

not configured yet).



When you select a screen with mouse click, the details about selected screen

are displayed in the lower part of the window.



You can specify a wallpaper for specific screen in several ways:



* Select the screen by clicking on it's rectangle, and then press the "Browse"

  button below. Standard "Open file" dialog will appear.

* Double-click the screen rectangle. The same "Open file" dialog will appear.

* Drag-n-drop the wallpaper file from another application (file manager, for

  example) onto screen rectangle.



Press "Apply" button to set the wallpapers from selected configuration.



`xwallpapergui` also has simple command-line interface:



```

$ xwallpapergui.py list

```



will print the list of all existing configurations and details about them.



```

$ xwallpapergui.py apply

```



will automatically detect the configuration which should be used with currently

enabled monitors, and apply wallpapers from that configuration. You may wish to

configure your desktop environment to automatically launch this command every

time a monitor is plugged or unplugged.



Prerequisites

-------------



* Python 3.8+

* PyQt5

* `xwallpaper`



License

-------



GPL-3, see LICENSE.