(Have not pursued my previous wget/curl question yet...on back burner.)

I came across an old college photo and was wondering if there was a nice way
to have either:
1: a different background pic for each workspace like kde used to allow or
2: a way to have the background change occasionally...every few days.

I found a couple programs that purport to allow this....
one is "variety" and another is "shotwell".

I have to assume this is an old idea so I'm just wondering if there is an
accepted "standard solution" before I decide to try one of those two (or
your guys' suggestions) listed above.

pH in Aptos

pH <wNOSPAMp@gmail.org> wrote:
> (Have not pursued my previous wget/curl question yet...on back burner.)
>
> I came across an old college photo and was wondering if there was a nice way
> to have either:
> 1: a different background pic for each workspace like kde used to allow or

This will likely need support from either your window manager or your
desktop environment.

> 2: a way to have the background change occasionally...every few days.

The "xv" image viewer can be driven from the command line, and it can
put an image into the root background.

So for an 'every few days' change you could simply have cron run a bash
script every few days that did:

xv -root -quit "$(pick-random-image)"

Where "pick-random-image" would be another program (or a bash function
in the same script) that picked a random image from your 'library' of
background images.

The -root option tells xv to put the image into the root window
background. The -quit option tells xv to exit once it finishes
placing the image into the background.

Note that "pick-random-image" could be something as simple as:

find -type f ~/background-image-library | sort -R | head -1

If you wanted more 'randomness' (probably not necessary for this usage)
you can also add --random-source=/dev/urandom to the sort invocation.

Note that when run from cron you will likely also need an "export
DISPLAY=:0.0" (assuming your X display is :0.0) prior to the xv call
for xv to find the X display.

On 20/05/2021 03:24, pH wrote:
> (Have not pursued my previous wget/curl question yet...on back burner.)
>
> I came across an old college photo and was wondering if there was a nice way
> to have either:
> 1: a different background pic for each workspace like kde used to allow or

noy seen that option. Would be nice

> 2: a way to have the background change occasionally...every few days.

well you could run a cron scripts and change the contents of
'mybackground.png' or similar. dunno if you would have to restart the
window manager tho :-)

>
> I found a couple programs that purport to allow this....
> one is "variety" and another is "shotwell".
>
> I have to assume this is an old idea so I'm just wondering if there is an
> accepted "standard solution" before I decide to try one of those two (or
> your guys' suggestions) listed above.
>
> pH in Aptos
>

--
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.
In practice, there is.
-- Yogi Berra

On Thu, 20 May 2021 02:24:30 -0000 (UTC), pH wrote:
> (Have not pursued my previous wget/curl question yet...on back burner.)
>
> I came across an old college photo and was wondering if there was a nice way
> to have either:
> 1: a different background pic for each workspace like kde used to allow or
> 2: a way to have the background change occasionally...every few days.

It helps to give some information about your setup in relation to your
question. Which DE (Cinnamon, MATE, Xfce)

Xfce is somewhat like kde 3 used to be. I run 8 workspaces, and it was
dead simple to set each to run a slide show and indicate how often to
change the background.

On 2021-05-20, Rich <rich@example.invalid> wrote:
> pH <wNOSPAMp@gmail.org> wrote:
>> (Have not pursued my previous wget/curl question yet...on back burner.)
>>
>> I came across an old college photo and was wondering if there was a nice way
>> to have either:
>> 1: a different background pic for each workspace like kde used to allow or
>
> This will likely need support from either your window manager or your
> desktop environment.
>
>> 2: a way to have the background change occasionally...every few days.
>
> The "xv" image viewer can be driven from the command line, and it can
> put an image into the root background.
>
> So for an 'every few days' change you could simply have cron run a bash
> script every few days that did:
>
> xv -root -quit "$(pick-random-image)"
>
> Where "pick-random-image" would be another program (or a bash function
> in the same script) that picked a random image from your 'library' of
> background images.
>
> The -root option tells xv to put the image into the root window
> background. The -quit option tells xv to exit once it finishes
> placing the image into the background.
>
> Note that "pick-random-image" could be something as simple as:
>
> find -type f ~/background-image-library | sort -R | head -1
>
> If you wanted more 'randomness' (probably not necessary for this usage)
> you can also add --random-source=/dev/urandom to the sort invocation.
>
> Note that when run from cron you will likely also need an "export
> DISPLAY=:0.0" (assuming your X display is :0.0) prior to the xv call
> for xv to find the X display.

That sounds like it might do the trick.
Last time I tried to download xv it was not available. I've never done a
tarball, but there's always a first time.

Right after I posted the original I saw that "xsetroot" is available and
thought that just writing a script and putting it in as a cronjob might be
what all you scripting gurus might do.

But the man page says that xsetroot just does 'sprite' sized bitmaps and not
jpg images.

I would not even need a cronjob, actually. I could have the function and
type 'change_background' or whatever when I felt like it.

Maybe I'll go see if xv is on a repository yet......

pH in Aptos

On 2021-05-20, Bit Twister <BitTwister@mouse-potato.com> wrote:
> On Thu, 20 May 2021 02:24:30 -0000 (UTC), pH wrote:
>> (Have not pursued my previous wget/curl question yet...on back burner.)
>>
>> I came across an old college photo and was wondering if there was a nice way
>> to have either:
>> 1: a different background pic for each workspace like kde used to allow or
>> 2: a way to have the background change occasionally...every few days.
>
> It helps to give some information about your setup in relation to your
> question. Which DE (Cinnamon, MATE, Xfce)
>
> Xfce is somewhat like kde 3 used to be. I run 8 workspaces, and it was
> dead simple to set each to run a slide show and indicate how often to
> change the background.

....I think it's MATE, but I can't remember how to find these things out.
uname -a does not help me.
There's no 'etc/release' and looking through all the /dev files doesn't give
me a hint.
looking through ls<tab><tab> possibilities does not bring up anything that
looks useful
less etc/os-release....nope

That's part of the hard part of linux....remembering the names of all the
utilities that do what you want to do. That's part of why I read this
newsgroup. I don't know how you guys remember it all.

pH

On Fri, 21 May 2021 01:28:24 -0000 (UTC), pH wrote:
> On 2021-05-20, Bit Twister <BitTwister@mouse-potato.com> wrote:
>> On Thu, 20 May 2021 02:24:30 -0000 (UTC), pH wrote:
>>> (Have not pursued my previous wget/curl question yet...on back burner.)
>>>
>>> I came across an old college photo and was wondering if there was a nice way
>>> to have either:
>>> 1: a different background pic for each workspace like kde used to allow or
>>> 2: a way to have the background change occasionally...every few days.
>>
>> It helps to give some information about your setup in relation to your
>> question. Which DE (Cinnamon, MATE, Xfce)
>>
>> Xfce is somewhat like kde 3 used to be. I run 8 workspaces, and it was
>> dead simple to set each to run a slide show and indicate how often to
>> change the background.
>
> ...I think it's MATE, but I can't remember how to find these things out.

I find
env | grep -i xdg
informative for desktop environment information.

> uname -a does not help me.
> There's no 'etc/release' and looking through all the /dev files doesn't give
> me a hint.
> looking through ls<tab><tab> possibilities does not bring up anything that
> looks useful
> less etc/os-release....nope
>
> That's part of the hard part of linux....remembering the names of all the
> utilities that do what you want to do.

I find apropos handy. If not installed I will use man -k
Example
man -k terminal | grep -i return
tty (1p) - return user's terminal name
ttyname (3) - return name of a terminal
ttyname_r (3) - return name of a terminal

> That's part of why I read this newsgroup.

I lurk in 76 newsgroups.

> I don't know how you guys remember it all.

I keep most of my linux memory in an ascii file with keywords followed
with command/example. Scripts I might need are in at txt directory.

I wrote a script to take any number of keywords to search the file.

pH <wNOSPAMp@gmail.org> wrote:
> On 2021-05-20, Rich <rich@example.invalid> wrote:
>> pH <wNOSPAMp@gmail.org> wrote:
>>> (Have not pursued my previous wget/curl question yet...on back
>>> burner.)
>>>
>>> I came across an old college photo and was wondering if there was a
>>> nice way to have either:

>>> 1: a different background pic for each workspace like kde used to
>>> allow or
>>
>> This will likely need support from either your window manager or
>> your desktop environment.
>>
>>> 2: a way to have the background change occasionally...every few
>>> days.
>>
>> The "xv" image viewer can be driven from the command line, and it
>> can put an image into the root background.
>>
>> So for an 'every few days' change you could simply have cron run a
>> bash script every few days that did:
>>
>> xv -root -quit "$(pick-random-image)"
>>
>> Where "pick-random-image" would be another program (or a bash
>> function in the same script) that picked a random image from your
>> 'library' of background images.
>
> That sounds like it might do the trick.
> Last time I tried to download xv it was not available. I've never done a
> tarball, but there's always a first time.

You can get a copy of the source from here:
https://mirrors.slackware.com/slackware/slackware-14.2/source/xap/xv/

You'll have to compile it yourself.

> Right after I posted the original I saw that "xsetroot" is available
> and thought that just writing a script and putting it in as a cronjob
> might be what all you scripting gurus might do.
>
> But the man page says that xsetroot just does 'sprite' sized bitmaps
> and not jpg images.

Yes, it only does tiled bitmaps. It might accept a bitmap equal in
size to the root window, and then only do one tiling (I never tested
this idea). If you really wanted to use it, and if it did support
"full root sized images", then the netpbm package should handle
converting from a modern image format (jpeg/png) into the required
bitmap for xsetroot.

> I would not even need a cronjob, actually. I could have the function
> and type 'change_background' or whatever when I felt like it.

Yes, I've done both at various times in the past, a cron driven
'auto-swap' and a shell script to 'swap on demand'.

> Maybe I'll go see if xv is on a repository yet......

It is an older program, so may or may not already be packaged for your
distro. But compiling it should be no big deal, and the result is a
single big executable.

pH <wNOSPAMp@gmail.org> wrote:
> On 2021-05-20, Bit Twister <BitTwister@mouse-potato.com> wrote:
>> On Thu, 20 May 2021 02:24:30 -0000 (UTC), pH wrote:
>>> (Have not pursued my previous wget/curl question yet...on back burner.)
>>>
>>> I came across an old college photo and was wondering if there was a
>>> nice way to have either:

>>> 1: a different background pic for each workspace like kde used to
>>> allow or
>>> 2: a way to have the background change occasionally...every few
>>> days.
>>
>> It helps to give some information about your setup in relation to
>> your question. Which DE (Cinnamon, MATE, Xfce)
>>
>> Xfce is somewhat like kde 3 used to be. I run 8 workspaces, and it
>> was dead simple to set each to run a slide show and indicate how
>> often to change the background.
>
> ...I think it's MATE, but I can't remember how to find these things out.
> uname -a does not help me.
> There's no 'etc/release' and looking through all the /dev files
> doesn't give me a hint.
> looking through ls<tab><tab> possibilities does not bring up anything
> that looks useful
> less etc/os-release....nope
>
> That's part of the hard part of linux....remembering the names of all
> the utilities that do what you want to do. That's part of why I read
> this newsgroup. I don't know how you guys remember it all.

In some of our cases, we've been using them since circa 1993-1994...

I first used xv on a true X-Terminal (a graphical terminal
[CRT/keyboard/mouse] that spoke X protocol) wired to a Sun workstation
over 10mbit thinnet ethernet at work, circa 1993-1994.

On 21/05/2021 02:28, pH wrote:
> On 2021-05-20, Bit Twister <BitTwister@mouse-potato.com> wrote:
>> On Thu, 20 May 2021 02:24:30 -0000 (UTC), pH wrote:
>>> (Have not pursued my previous wget/curl question yet...on back burner.)
>>>
>>> I came across an old college photo and was wondering if there was a nice way
>>> to have either:
>>> 1: a different background pic for each workspace like kde used to allow or
>>> 2: a way to have the background change occasionally...every few days.
>>
>> It helps to give some information about your setup in relation to your
>> question. Which DE (Cinnamon, MATE, Xfce)
>>
>> Xfce is somewhat like kde 3 used to be. I run 8 workspaces, and it was
>> dead simple to set each to run a slide show and indicate how often to
>> change the background.
>
> ...I think it's MATE, but I can't remember how to find these things out.
> uname -a does not help me.
> There's no 'etc/release' and looking through all the /dev files doesn't give
> me a hint.
> looking through ls<tab><tab> possibilities does not bring up anything that
> looks useful
> less etc/os-release....nope
>
> That's part of the hard part of linux....remembering the names of all the
> utilities that do what you want to do. That's part of why I read this
> newsgroup. I don't know how you guys remember it all.
>
>
> pH
>
Not sure that Mint cinnamon has workspaces.,..my bet its that its MATE

--
There is nothing a fleet of dispatchable nuclear power plants cannot do
that cannot be done worse and more expensively and with higher carbon
emissions and more adverse environmental impact by adding intermittent
renewable energy.

Rich <rich@example.invalid> writes:

> pH <wNOSPAMp@gmail.org> wrote:
>> On 2021-05-20, Rich <rich@example.invalid> wrote:
>>> pH <wNOSPAMp@gmail.org> wrote:
>>>> (Have not pursued my previous wget/curl question yet...on back
>>>> burner.)
>>>>
>>>> I came across an old college photo and was wondering if there was a
>>>> nice way to have either:
>
>>>> 1: a different background pic for each workspace like kde used to
>>>> allow or
>>>
>>> This will likely need support from either your window manager or
>>> your desktop environment.
>>>
>>>> 2: a way to have the background change occasionally...every few
>>>> days.
>>>
>>> The "xv" image viewer can be driven from the command line, and it
>>> can put an image into the root background.
>>>
>>> So for an 'every few days' change you could simply have cron run a
>>> bash script every few days that did:
>>>
>>> xv -root -quit "$(pick-random-image)"
>>>
>>> Where "pick-random-image" would be another program (or a bash
>>> function in the same script) that picked a random image from your
>>> 'library' of background images.
>>
>> That sounds like it might do the trick.
>> Last time I tried to download xv it was not available. I've never done a
>> tarball, but there's always a first time.
>
> You can get a copy of the source from here:
> https://mirrors.slackware.com/slackware/slackware-14.2/source/xap/xv/
>
> You'll have to compile it yourself.

I found xv way too slow for this use.

What I use is "xli". xli doesn't seem to be in any of the package
managers but the source is here:

https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xli

One of the things I like about xli is it's ability to expand in either
of 2 directions, I use '-full' or '-fill' depending on the image.
A few images get tiled or just centered without expansion.

My setup changes the background every hour.
The commands to paint the background are in a file.
I have script that calculates the line number of the next image to
display (with wrap around) and saves the current line number in a file.
Another script uses the saved line number to find and execute the
command to paint the background.

--
Dan Espen

In <s88dpg$3kq$1@dont-email.me> Dan Espen:

[Snip...]

> What I use is "xli". xli doesn't seem to be in any of the package
> managers but the source is here:
>
> https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xli

I install xli on Debian-bases, (along with other minimal X toys)
using apt and something like this:

apt install xli xterm openbox xorg xdm xbase-clients

IIRC, if X is already installed, only xli needs to be added.

HTH ...

--
Regards, Weird (Harold Stevens) * IMPORTANT EMAIL INFO FOLLOWS *
Pardon any bogus email addresses (wookie) in place for spambots.
Really, it's (wyrd) at att, dotted with net. * DO NOT SPAM IT. *
I toss GoogleGroup (http://twovoyagers.com/improve-usenet.org/).

Harold Stevens <wookie@fossa.localdomain> writes:

> In <s88dpg$3kq$1@dont-email.me> Dan Espen:
>
> [Snip...]
>
>> What I use is "xli". xli doesn't seem to be in any of the package
>> managers but the source is here:
>>
>> https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xli
>
> I install xli on Debian-bases, (along with other minimal X toys)
> using apt and something like this:
>
> apt install xli xterm openbox xorg xdm xbase-clients
>
> IIRC, if X is already installed, only xli needs to be added.

Cool, so at least one distro knows what's still good.
I can't find it in the Fedora repos but I've been compiling
it from source for ages.

--
Dan Espen

In <s88muv$388$1@dont-email.me> Dan Espen:

> Cool, so at least one distro knows what's still good.
> I can't find it in the Fedora repos but I've been compiling
> it from source for ages.

Yes, Debian-base has many toys I absolutely require that other
distros seem to shun.

One example is the command line encryption tool, mcrypt.

It seems widely available with apt in Debian base but missing
(AFAIK) in both SUSE and Red Hat based installation managers.

For example ...

"The mcrypt encryption module rpm package hase been removed
and now this has to be compiled and installed manually"

https://www.suse.com/support/kb/doc/?id=000019743

--
Regards, Weird (Harold Stevens) * IMPORTANT EMAIL INFO FOLLOWS *
Pardon any bogus email addresses (wookie) in place for spambots.
Really, it's (wyrd) at att, dotted with net. * DO NOT SPAM IT. *
I toss GoogleGroup (http://twovoyagers.com/improve-usenet.org/).

On 2021-05-21, Rich <rich@example.invalid> wrote:
> pH <wNOSPAMp@gmail.org> wrote:

<snip>
>>> 'library' of background images.
>>
>> That sounds like it might do the trick.
>> Last time I tried to download xv it was not available. I've never done a
>> tarball, but there's always a first time.
>
> You can get a copy of the source from here:
> https://mirrors.slackware.com/slackware/slackware-14.2/source/xap/xv/
>
> You'll have to compile it yourself.

Hmm. Maybe I will try that so I can pat myself on the back. I've never
succeeded before...I fell into dependency hell...
"You need this certain library...."
(download)
"Now you need *this* library..."
(download)
lather, rinse, repeat....give up. Of course, this was long time ago,
RedHat 5.2, I think.

>> Right after I posted the original I saw that "xsetroot" is available
>> and thought that just writing a script and putting it in as a cronjob
>> might be what all you scripting gurus might do.
>>
>> But the man page says that xsetroot just does 'sprite' sized bitmaps
>> and not jpg images.
>
> Yes, it only does tiled bitmaps. It might accept a bitmap equal in
> size to the root window, and then only do one tiling (I never tested
> this idea). If you really wanted to use it, and if it did support
> "full root sized images", then the netpbm package should handle
> converting from a modern image format (jpeg/png) into the required
> bitmap for xsetroot.
>
>> I would not even need a cronjob, actually. I could have the function
>> and type 'change_background' or whatever when I felt like it.
>
> Yes, I've done both at various times in the past, a cron driven
> 'auto-swap' and a shell script to 'swap on demand'.
>
>> Maybe I'll go see if xv is on a repository yet......
>
> It is an older program, so may or may not already be packaged for your
> distro. But compiling it should be no big deal, and the result is a
> single big executable.
>
Well, that's an encouraging comment. I'll put this on my list of things to
try. (I always worry about messing up my sysem w/ garbage and/or failed
compiles...I *am* backed up...but still.)

pH

Harold Stevens <wookie@fossa.localdomain> writes:

> In <s88muv$388$1@dont-email.me> Dan Espen:
>
>> Cool, so at least one distro knows what's still good.
>> I can't find it in the Fedora repos but I've been compiling
>> it from source for ages.
>
> Yes, Debian-base has many toys I absolutely require that other
> distros seem to shun.
>
> One example is the command line encryption tool, mcrypt.
>
> It seems widely available with apt in Debian base but missing
> (AFAIK) in both SUSE and Red Hat based installation managers.
>
> For example ...
>
> "The mcrypt encryption module rpm package hase been removed
> and now this has to be compiled and installed manually"
>
> https://www.suse.com/support/kb/doc/?id=000019743

Seems to be in Fedora:

xxx> dnf provides *bin/mcrypt
Last metadata expiration check: 15:38:36 ago on Thu 20 May 2021 10:10:36 PM EDT.
mcrypt-2.6.8-24.fc32.x86_64 : Replacement for crypt()
Repo : fedora
Matched from:
Other : *bin/mcrypt

--
Dan Espen

On 2021-05-21, Bit Twister <BitTwister@mouse-potato.com> wrote:
> On Fri, 21 May 2021 01:28:24 -0000 (UTC), pH wrote:
>> On 2021-05-20, Bit Twister <BitTwister@mouse-potato.com> wrote:
>>> On Thu, 20 May 2021 02:24:30 -0000 (UTC), pH wrote:
>>>> (Have not pursued my previous wget/curl question yet...on back burner.)
>>>>
>>>> I came across an old college photo and was wondering if there was a nice way
>>>> to have either:
>>>> 1: a different background pic for each workspace like kde used to allow or
>>>> 2: a way to have the background change occasionally...every few days.
>>>
>>> It helps to give some information about your setup in relation to your
>>> question. Which DE (Cinnamon, MATE, Xfce)
>>>
>>> Xfce is somewhat like kde 3 used to be. I run 8 workspaces, and it was
>>> dead simple to set each to run a slide show and indicate how often to
>>> change the background.
>>
>> ...I think it's MATE, but I can't remember how to find these things out.
>
> I find
> env | grep -i xdg
> informative for desktop environment information.
>
>> uname -a does not help me.
>> There's no 'etc/release' and looking through all the /dev files doesn't give
>> me a hint.
>> looking through ls<tab><tab> possibilities does not bring up anything that
>> looks useful
>> less etc/os-release....nope
>>
>> That's part of the hard part of linux....remembering the names of all the
>> utilities that do what you want to do.
>
> I find apropos handy. If not installed I will use man -k
> Example
> man -k terminal | grep -i return
> tty (1p) - return user's terminal name
> ttyname (3) - return name of a terminal
> ttyname_r (3) - return name of a terminal
>
>> That's part of why I read this newsgroup.
>
> I lurk in 76 newsgroups.
>
>> I don't know how you guys remember it all.
>
> I keep most of my linux memory in an ascii file with keywords followed
> with command/example. Scripts I might need are in at txt directory.
>
> I wrote a script to take any number of keywords to search the file.
>
Like magic! Thanks.
Looks like I'm using mate......
pH

.....how did you know that XDG is the magic word in this case?
(rhetorical question)

htp@beckeroo:~/tunes$ env | grep -i xdg
XDG_CONFIG_DIRS=/etc/xdg/xdg-mate:/etc/xdg
XDG_SESSION_PATH=/org/freedesktop/DisplayManager/Session0
XDG_SEAT=seat0
XDG_SESSION_DESKTOP=mate
XDG_SESSION_TYPE=x11
XDG_GREETER_DATA_DIR=/var/lib/lightdm-data/phtp
XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=MATE
XDG_SEAT_PATH=/org/freedesktop/DisplayManager/Seat0
XDG_SESSION_CLASS=user
XDG_VTNR=7
XDG_SESSION_ID=c1
XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/user/1000
XDG_DATA_DIRS=/usr/share/mate:/home/phtp/.local/share/flatpak/exports/share:/var/lib/flatpak/exports/share:/usr/local/share:/usr/share

pH

Dan Espen <dan1espen@gmail.com> wrote:
> Harold Stevens <wookie@fossa.localdomain> writes:
>
>> In <s88muv$388$1@dont-email.me> Dan Espen:
>>
>>> Cool, so at least one distro knows what's still good.
>>> I can't find it in the Fedora repos but I've been compiling
>>> it from source for ages.
>>
>> Yes, Debian-base has many toys I absolutely require that other
>> distros seem to shun.
>>
>> One example is the command line encryption tool, mcrypt.
>>
>> It seems widely available with apt in Debian base but missing
>> (AFAIK) in both SUSE and Red Hat based installation managers.
>>
>> For example ...
>>
>> "The mcrypt encryption module rpm package hase been removed
>> and now this has to be compiled and installed manually"
>>
>> https://www.suse.com/support/kb/doc/?id=000019743
>
> Seems to be in Fedora:
>
> xxx> dnf provides *bin/mcrypt
> Last metadata expiration check: 15:38:36 ago on Thu 20 May 2021 10:10:36 PM EDT.
> mcrypt-2.6.8-24.fc32.x86_64 : Replacement for crypt()
> Repo : fedora
> Matched from:
> Other : *bin/mcrypt

Not in the base Slackware install, but is available as a slack build
from the SlackBuilds repository:

http://slackbuilds.org/repository/14.2/system/mcrypt/

pH <wNOSPAMp@gmail.org> wrote:
> On 2021-05-21, Rich <rich@example.invalid> wrote:
>> pH <wNOSPAMp@gmail.org> wrote:
>
> <snip>
>>>> 'library' of background images.
>>>
>>> That sounds like it might do the trick.
>>> Last time I tried to download xv it was not available. I've never done a
>>> tarball, but there's always a first time.
>>
>> You can get a copy of the source from here:
>> https://mirrors.slackware.com/slackware/slackware-14.2/source/xap/xv/
>>
>> You'll have to compile it yourself.
>
> Hmm. Maybe I will try that so I can pat myself on the back. I've never
> succeeded before...I fell into dependency hell...
> "You need this certain library...."
> (download)
> "Now you need *this* library..."
> (download)
> lather, rinse, repeat....give up. Of course, this was long time ago,
> RedHat 5.2, I think.

On my Slackware system, xv links to the following libs:

$ ldd /usr/bin/xv
linux-vdso.so.1 (0x00007fff34bce000)
libtiff.so.3 => /usr/lib64/libtiff.so.3 (0x00007fa3f7ad3000)
libjpeg.so.8 => /usr/lib64/libjpeg.so.8 (0x00007fa3f7899000)
libpng.so.14 => /usr/lib64/libpng.so.14 (0x00007fa3f7673000)
libz.so.1 => /lib64/libz.so.1 (0x00007fa3f745e000)
libjasper.so.1 => /usr/lib64/libjasper.so.1 (0x00007fa3f7205000)
libX11.so.6 => /usr/lib64/libX11.so.6 (0x00007fa3f6eca000)
libm.so.6 => /lib64/libm.so.6 (0x00007fa3f6bc8000)
libc.so.6 => /lib64/libc.so.6 (0x00007fa3f67fe000)
libxcb.so.1 => /usr/lib64/libxcb.so.1 (0x00007fa3f65e0000)
libXau.so.6 => /usr/lib64/libXau.so.6 (0x00007fa3f63dd000)
libXdmcp.so.6 => /usr/lib64/libXdmcp.so.6 (0x00007fa3f61d8000)
libdl.so.2 => /lib64/libdl.so.2 (0x00007fa3f5fd3000)
/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00007fa3f7d61000)

They are either basic C libs, X libs, or image libraries (libjasper I
had to look up, it is for JPEG-2000 format images).

So, provided you have the X libs (you should, to run X) the basic C
libs (nothing C based runs without these) and the image libraries
(likely already installed) then compiling a copy up should be no big
deal.

>>> Right after I posted the original I saw that "xsetroot" is available
>>> and thought that just writing a script and putting it in as a cronjob
>>> might be what all you scripting gurus might do.
>>>
>>> But the man page says that xsetroot just does 'sprite' sized bitmaps
>>> and not jpg images.
>>
>> Yes, it only does tiled bitmaps. It might accept a bitmap equal in
>> size to the root window, and then only do one tiling (I never tested
>> this idea). If you really wanted to use it, and if it did support
>> "full root sized images", then the netpbm package should handle
>> converting from a modern image format (jpeg/png) into the required
>> bitmap for xsetroot.
>>
>>> I would not even need a cronjob, actually. I could have the function
>>> and type 'change_background' or whatever when I felt like it.
>>
>> Yes, I've done both at various times in the past, a cron driven
>> 'auto-swap' and a shell script to 'swap on demand'.
>>
>>> Maybe I'll go see if xv is on a repository yet......
>>
>> It is an older program, so may or may not already be packaged for your
>> distro. But compiling it should be no big deal, and the result is a
>> single big executable.
>>
> Well, that's an encouraging comment. I'll put this on my list of things to
> try. (I always worry about messing up my sysem w/ garbage and/or failed
> compiles...I *am* backed up...but still.)

There are five binaries that get installed in Slackware for the xv
package:
usr/bin/xvpictoppm
usr/bin/xv
usr/bin/vdcomp
usr/bin/bggen
usr/bin/xcmap

and there are zero libraries installed. So if you do get a successful
compile, you can simply put the "xv" binary in a ~/bin directory, add
that dir to your PATH, and use it without 'mucking up' anything with
the rest of the system.

Re: availability of suppported mcrypt package repos ...

In <s898jt$c01$5@dont-email.me> Rich:
> Dan Espen <dan1espen@gmail.com> wrote:

[Snip...]

>> Seems to be in Fedora:

[Snip...]

>> mcrypt-2.6.8-24.fc32.x86_64 : Replacement for crypt()
>> Repo : fedora
>> Matched from:
>> Other : *bin/mcrypt
>
> Not in the base Slackware install, but is available as a slack build
> from the SlackBuilds repository:
>
> http://slackbuilds.org/repository/14.2/system/mcrypt/

Thanks, I had not thought to look in these places. FWIW, I still
have supported Slackware on two ancient Pentiums. :)

--
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Pardon any bogus email addresses (wookie) in place for spambots.
Really, it's (wyrd) at att, dotted with net. * DO NOT SPAM IT. *
I toss GoogleGroup (http://twovoyagers.com/improve-usenet.org/).

Harold Stevens <wookie@limbo.localdomain> wrote:
> Re: availability of suppported mcrypt package repos ...
>
> In <s898jt$c01$5@dont-email.me> Rich:
>> Dan Espen <dan1espen@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> [Snip...]
>
>>> Seems to be in Fedora:
>
> [Snip...]
>
>>> mcrypt-2.6.8-24.fc32.x86_64 : Replacement for crypt()
>>> Repo : fedora
>>> Matched from:
>>> Other : *bin/mcrypt
>>
>> Not in the base Slackware install, but is available as a slack build
>> from the SlackBuilds repository:
>>
>> http://slackbuilds.org/repository/14.2/system/mcrypt/
>
> Thanks, I had not thought to look in these places. FWIW, I still
> have supported Slackware on two ancient Pentiums. :)

All of my systems run Slackware. Various different versions among
them, but only Slackware.

Dan Espen <dan1espen@gmail.com> writes:

> What I use is "xli". xli doesn't seem to be in any of the package
> managers but the source is here:
>
> https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xli

There's also a similar utility called xloadimage. I don't know if one is
a fork of the other or what the history is. I have a very old and very
messy perl script which selects a random image from a directory and puts
it on the root window using xli or xloadimage. Both apps use much the
same options.

I remember I originally wrote this so I could use the same thing on the
Sun workstations at work and my Linux PCs at home. The Suns had one of
these, back then Debian (or whatever Linux I had) had the other.

Anssi Saari <as@sci.fi> writes:

> Dan Espen <dan1espen@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> What I use is "xli". xli doesn't seem to be in any of the package
>> managers but the source is here:
>>
>> https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xli
>
> There's also a similar utility called xloadimage. I don't know if one is
> a fork of the other or what the history is. I have a very old and very
> messy perl script which selects a random image from a directory and puts
> it on the root window using xli or xloadimage. Both apps use much the
> same options.
>
> I remember I originally wrote this so I could use the same thing on the
> Sun workstations at work and my Linux PCs at home. The Suns had one of
> these, back then Debian (or whatever Linux I had) had the other.

My scripts also were originally written on Solaris.

xli and xloadimage claim a common origin but xli has 2 different ways to
zoom the image onto the root that xloadimage lacks.

--
Dan Espen

Le 21-05-2021, Dan Espen <dan1espen@gmail.com> a écrit :
> Harold Stevens <wookie@fossa.localdomain> writes:
>
>> In <s88dpg$3kq$1@dont-email.me> Dan Espen:
>>
>> [Snip...]
>>
>>> What I use is "xli". xli doesn't seem to be in any of the package
>>> managers but the source is here:
>>>
>>> https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xli
>>
>> I install xli on Debian-bases, (along with other minimal X toys)
>> using apt and something like this:
>>
>> apt install xli xterm openbox xorg xdm xbase-clients
>>
>> IIRC, if X is already installed, only xli needs to be added.
>
> Cool, so at least one distro knows what's still good.
> I can't find it in the Fedora repos but I've been compiling
> it from source for ages.

Maybe you can try to see if feh is in the repository. It can do the
same.

--
Si vous avez du temps à perdre :
https://scarpet42.gitlab.io

Stéphane CARPENTIER <sc@fiat-linux.fr> writes:

> Le 21-05-2021, Dan Espen <dan1espen@gmail.com> a écrit :
>> Harold Stevens <wookie@fossa.localdomain> writes:
>>
>>> In <s88dpg$3kq$1@dont-email.me> Dan Espen:
>>>
>>> [Snip...]
>>>
>>>> What I use is "xli". xli doesn't seem to be in any of the package
>>>> managers but the source is here:
>>>>
>>>> https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xli
>>>
>>> I install xli on Debian-bases, (along with other minimal X toys)
>>> using apt and something like this:
>>>
>>> apt install xli xterm openbox xorg xdm xbase-clients
>>>
>>> IIRC, if X is already installed, only xli needs to be added.
>>
>> Cool, so at least one distro knows what's still good.
>> I can't find it in the Fedora repos but I've been compiling
>> it from source for ages.
>
> Maybe you can try to see if feh is in the repository. It can do the
> same.

feh is in the Fedora repositories.
I tried:

feh -no-fehbg -bgt-fill xxx.jpg

That gave me a window about the size of my root background.
A quick reading of the man page didn't reveal the secret to getting feh
to write on the actual root of the display.

This tool touts itself as being lightweight. Doesn't look lightweight
to me.

--
Dan Espen