Timed Backgrounds

Build Requirements: autotools, glib, geoclue2, libxml

This is a set of timed backgrounds that change during the day. The time transitions are calculated by equations outlined by the U.S. Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and implemented in Redshift.

Only tested on Cinnamon and GNOME desktop environments, but will work with any other desktop environment that supports gnome-backgrounds.

Available backgrounds:

• 24 hours (by Arzamas)
• Firewatch (by Campo Santo and _felics)
• Island (by arsenixc)
• Metropolis (by ???)
• Mountainside (by ???)

Configuration

To compute you sunrise and sunset times, you can specify your latitude and longitude manually, or you can use geoclue2 to compute it based on your IP address. The geoclue2 option is much slower and requires a network connection.

If the config file does not exist, the program will default to using geoclue2.

Manual

Create a file called ~/.config/backgrounds.conf and add:

[backgrounds]
location-provider=manual

[manual]
lat=<latitude>
lon=<longitude>

Geoclue2 (default)

Create a file called ~/.config/backgrounds.conf and add:

[backgrounds]
location-provider=geoclue

Note: If using the geoclue2 option, make sure that your IP address is located where you are. If you are, for example, behind a VPN, the script will set the sunrise and sunset times corresponding to where the network servers are.

Building

Run:

git clone https://github.com/sudorook/timed-backgrounds.git
cd timed-backgrounds
./autogen.sh
make
sudo make install

The backgrounds will be installed in /usr/share/backgrounds/timed and the relevant metadata in /usr/share/gnome-background-properties, /usr/share/cinnamon-background-properties, and /usr/share/mate-background-properties.

Uninstall by running sudo make uninstall.

Note: Times for sunrise and sunset vary throughout the year due to the tilt in Earth's axis. Recompile and reinstall the backgrounds periodically so that the transition times match real-world day/night cycles. The sunrise/sunset equations do not take into account elevation.

To rebuild and reinstall, run:

make clean
make
sudo make install

GNOME

To select a wallpaper in GNOME, use "Backgrounds" in "System Settings".

Cinnamon

Previously, setting timed backgrounds in Cinnamon was not possible using the settings GUI, but this has now been fixed. For Cinnamon versions older than 4.4.3, use the following to set the background:

dconf write /org/cinnamon/desktop/background/picture-uri "'file:///usr/share/backgrounds/timed/<timed-background>.xml'"

Note: By default, Cinnamon looks for the timed.xml file (which contains a list of all the available backgrounds) in /usr/share/cinnamon-background-properties/, but some distros (such as Arch) patch it to look in /usr/share/gnome-background-properties/ instead.

MATE (Untested)

Background metadata is installed in /usr/share/mate-background-properties. If they cannot be selected via the mate background app, you will need to use dconf to select one manually. See the above instructions for Cinnamon.