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Saturday, October 17, 2015

Wallpaper Changer With Multi-Monitor Support `SyncWall` 2.0.0 Released, Available In PPA

SyncWall, a Qt wallpaper changer with multi-monitor support, was updated to version 2.0.0 recently and the new version is now available in the main failsdownloads PPA for all supported Ubuntu versions.

SyncWall doesn't support downloading wallpapers automatically, like Variety Wallpaper Changer for instance, but it has some interesting features that aren't available in other similar apps (that I know of anyway): for instance, SyncWall can span a single wallpaper over multiple monitors (you can do this with a single wallpaper from the Appearance settings, but that doesn't work when using a wallpaper changer).

Also, the application can synchronize your current wallpaper across your local network.

Here's a quick list of the most important SyncWall features:

change wallpapers automatically / manually (optionally, this can be done via keyboard shortcuts);
multi-monitor support - for instance, it can span a single wallpaper over multiple monitors;
synchronize wallpaper between workstations;
configurable wallpaper change interval / time of day;
supports special effects for the wallpapers (blur, sharpen, desaturate, glow and so on);
several resizing methods and background filling;
available for Linux, Windows and Mac OS X;
should work with most Linux desktop environments: KDE 3/4, GNOME / GNOME 3 (includes Unity), Xfce, LXDE, Enlightenment, Openbox, Fluxbox, IceWM, Blackbox, WindowMaker and FVWM (it doesn't support Cinnamon and MATE though).

What's new in SyncWall 2.0 compared to the previous version available in the main failsdownloads PPA:

added option to start SyncWall automatically on Linux;
direct synchronization of wallpapers across network (sharing the same file is not used any more);
display name of current wallpaper in window header;
change layout for better handling on small screens (laptops);
global keyboard shortcuts to change wallpaper, open main interface or change image offset (you enable these in the SyncWall preferences);
images can now be rated - images with higher rating are displayed more often;
addition of a simple database backend for image data to speed up display;
addition of image alignment defined graphically by user (in order to display best part of images);
addition of an horizontal alignment parameter;
addition of several resampling methods;
updated app icons;
many bug fixes (for instance, the invisible tooltips bug should be fixed, among many others).

Please note that SyncWall tries to automatically detect the desktop environment, but this can fail sometimes. If the wallpaper doesn't change, manually select the desktop environment in the SyncWall Preferences, on the Startup tab. For Unity, select GNOME 3 as the DE.

To span a single wallpaper across multiple monitors, in SyncWall select Preferences > Display Parameters and on the "Basic" tab, check the "Multi monitor support" box, then in the "Multi monitor" display drop-down, select "Extend image (one file for all monitors)":

Install SyncWall in Ubuntu

Ubuntu users can install SyncWall by using the main failsdownloads PPA. Add the PPA and install SyncWall using the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/failsdownloads
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install syncwall

If you don't want to add the main failsdownloads PPA, you can manually download the latest SyncWall 2.0.0 deb from HERE.

Arch Linux users can install the latest SyncWall via AUR.

For other Linux distributions, Windows and Mac OS X, see the SyncWall downloads page.

thanks to lffl.org for the SyncWall 2.0 update news

Variety Wallpaper Changer 0.4.19 Adds Support For Panoramio, Fixes Flickr And Wallpapers.net Sources, More

Variety, a cool wallpaper changer that works with most desktop environments (KDE, LXDE, Xfce, Unity, GNOME Shell, Cinnamon or Pantheon), reached version 0.4.19 today, bringing support for Panoramio as image source, support for the Enlightenment desktop environment, fixes for Flickr and Wallpapers.net and more.

For those not familiar with Variety, this is a wallpaper changer that automatically downloads wallpapers from sources such as Wallbase, Flickr, Wallpapers.net, Desktoppr, custom RSS feeds, NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day as well as World Sunlight Map: a live Earth wallpaper which changes throughout the day. Using it, you can get a new, beautiful wallpaper automatically at the interval you set in the application preferences.

The application can even apply fancy filters to the images: grayscale, heavy blur, oil painting, charcoal painting, pointilism or pixellate as well as display quotes or the time on top of the wallpaper.

Changes in Variety 0.4.19:

added support for Panoramio: this allows fetching images from a certain map area;
added support the Enlightenment desktop environment (E17, E18, E19)
reorganized indicator menu;
easier Facebook sharing: you no longer have to enter your login credentials in an embedded Webkit browser to share wallpapers on Facebok - instead, the login now happens in your default browser;
new Wallpaper Selector AppIndicator menu entry: this displays random images from your enabled image sources in Variety's thumbnail bar
unicode support;
fixed Flickr and Wallpapers.net wallpaper sources;
fixed AppIndicator icon size under Xfce and GNOME Fallback;
Other bug fixes (Cinnamon-related fixes, etc.).

Here are a few screenshots with these changes:

Variety Ubuntu AppIndicator

Panoramio - to use it, open the Variety Preferences and on the General tab click Add and select Panoramio

Wallpaper Selector

Variety AppIndicator icon fixed for GNOME Flashback

Variety AppIndicator icon fixed for Xfce

Install Variety Wallpaper Changer in Ubuntu or Linux Mint

Ubuntu / Linux Mint (and derivatives) users can install the latest Variety by using its official PPA. To add the PPA and install the application, copy / paste the following commands in a terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:peterlevi/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install variety

If you don't want to add the PPA or you want to install Variety on Debian, grab the deb from HERE.

Important notes: according to its installation page, Variety requires the AppIndicator plugin for Xfce and the AppIndicator Support extension for GNOME Shell. For KDE, you need to follow the instructions from HERE.

For other Linux distributions, see the official Variety installation instructions.

Report any bugs you may find @ Launchpad.

Wallch: Use Wallpaper Clocks, Live Earth, Live Website Wallpapers And More In Ubuntu [Wallpaper Changer]

Wallch is a wallpaper changer which aims to make it easy to get cool new wallpapers each day. With version 4.x (Ubuntu 14.04 / Linux Mint 17 only!), Wallch got support for Wallpaper Clocks as well as a Live Website feature, along with more configuration options and support for a few more desktop environments.

Wallch 4 features:

Supports the following desktop environments: Gnome 3 (with or without Unity), Xfce, LXDE and Mate;
Wallpaper changer: place some wallpapers in a folder on your system and Wallch will automatically change the wallpaper at the interval you want
Live Earth wallpaper (changes throughout the day);
Picture of the day (automatically downloads and sets the picture of the day from Wikipedia as your wallpaper);
Wallpaper Clocks (allows you to use the beautiful Wallpaper Clocks from VladStudio on your desktop; Wallpaper Clocks are wallpapers which come with a functional clock, updated every minute);
Live Website (displays a website - automatically updated at a given interval -, on your desktop);

From the Wallch preferences, you can set the app to display notifications on wallpaper change, keep a history of wallpapers changed, select to start Wallch at startup, rotate image based on Exif data, set a keyboard shortcut for changing the wallpaper along with many other options:

Here are a few wallpaper clocks used via Wallch:

Link to wallpaper

Compared to Variety (a popular wallpaper changer for Linux), Wallch has some extra features: wallpaper clocks support, live website and picture of the day, but there are also some features present in Variety which aren't available in Wallch: Wallch can't automatically download wallpapers from all the sources supported by Variety, such as desktoppr.co, wallpapers.net, Flickr, wallbase and so on and there are no effects or quotes features available in Wallch.

So while they share some features, there are quite a few differences between Wallch and Variety. Use the one that best suits your needs.

Install Wallch wallpaper changer in Ubuntu 14.04

Wallch 4 has been available in the Ubuntu 14.04 repositories for a while but it had some bugs (the "Start" button would crash the app which made the main app feature unusable, the Live Website wallpaper wasn't starting on startup and Wallch was crashing under Cinnamon) so I preferred to wait until these bugs were fixed before posting about it. That's why I recommend using the PPA (which has the extra bug fixes) instead of using the official Ubuntu 14.04 package and why the screenshots in the article are more than a month old.

To add the Wallch 4 PPA and install the application in Ubuntu 14.04, use the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:wallch/wallch-4.0
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install wallch

Unfortunately Wallch 4 can't be installed in older Ubuntu versions because it depends on Qt5 (and the packages from the Ubuntu SDK PPA are not enough). For older Ubuntu versions, I recommend Variety instead (it doesn't support Wallpaper Clocks though, at least not yet).

Note: Wallch may fail to autodetect the desktop environment you're using. To select the proper desktop environment, from the Wallch appindicator/tray icon select Preferences and on the Integration tab, under "Current Desktop Environment", select your current desktop environment, then restart Wallch.

Wallch doesn't start automatically on login - to enable this, from the Wallch preferences, on the General tab, select "Start Wallch on System startup".

Other Linux distributions: grab the source code via Sourceforge or the latest code via BZR.

If you encounter bugs, report them @ Launchpad.

Variety Wallpaper Changer 0.5.0 Released With Option To Sync Wallpapers Between Computers, Wallhaven And Reddit Support

Variety, one of the best wallpaper changers for Linux, has been updated to version 0.5.0, bringing support for automatically downloading wallpapers from Wallhaven and an option to add Reddit as an image source.

The new version also introduces a very cool new (optional) feature: a server-side companion (beta) which allows users to synchronize their wallpapers between computers, automatically retrieve wallpapers favorited by other Variety users, and more.

For those not familiar with Variety, this is a wallpaper changer that automatically downloads wallpapers from sources such as Flickr, Wallpapers.net, Desktoppr, Wallhaven, custom RSS feeds, NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day as well as World Sunlight Map: a live Earth wallpaper which changes throughout the day.

Using it, you can get a new, beautiful wallpaper automatically at the interval you set in the application preferences.

It's also important to note that Variety supports most desktop environments: Unity, GNOME, KDE, LXDE, Xfce, MATE, Cinnamon or Pantheon and more. There are a few tweaks that might be needed on some desktop environments to get it to work properly though - see THIS page for more information.

Now back to the latest Variety 0.5.0. The most important new feature in this new release is of course the new Variety server-side companion - VRTY.ORG, which "is fueled by the favorites of all users who choose to participate and is a humble attempt to make Variety more social – to connect users with similar taste in wallpapers, to use the data about what users like or dislike as a basis for recommendations".

This is an optional feature and using it, you can get Variety to automatically download and set other users favorite wallpapers as your wallpaper. Variety can also automatically recommend wallpapers that try to adapt to your taste:

Setting this up is very easy - the first time your run Variety 0.5.0, you'll be asked if you want to connect the application with VRTY.ORG:

Simply click "Continue" and follow the steps.

Also, by browsing the VRTY.ORG website, you can see the wallpapers favorited by other users and set them as your wallpaper with a click (this requires configuring your browser to open variety:// links).

Another feature introduced with Variety 0.5.0, which relies on using the new server-side companion (requires logging in to VRTY.ORG using the same account on all computers), is the ability to synchronize your favorite wallpapers across computers:

Other changes in Variety 0.5.0:

Wallhaven has replaced Wallbase.cc;
Reddit support (on the General tab, click "Add" on the right, select "Reddit" and add a subreddit as a source - examples: "/r/wallpapers", "/r/EarthPorn", etc.).

Install Variety in Ubuntu or Linux Mint

To install the latest Variety in Ubuntu / Linux Mint and derivatives, you can use its official PPA. To add the PPA and install Variety, run the following commands in a terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:peterlevi/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install variety

For other Linux distributions, see the Variety installation page.

If you encounter bugs, report them @ Launchpad.

FILES DOWNLOAD