Ubuntu Unleashed: Howto: Loop Movie, Video, and Display Screensaver as Desktop Wallpaper in Ubuntu Linux

Howto: Loop Movie, Video, and Display Screensaver as Desktop Wallpaper in Ubuntu Linux

Labels: Animated Desktop, Customization, Howto, Video as Wallpaper Ubuntu Posted by defcon on Tuesday, April 22, 2008 at 1:43 PM

Want to loop a video clip or movie on your desktop? I did and found a nice little tool that does just that! Check out this easy howto

First lets grab some essential building libraries via the terminal: Applications->Accessories->Terminal
sudo apt-get install build-essential libx11-dev x11proto-xext-dev libxrender-dev libxext-dev cvs
Now lets Install xwinwrap:
cvs -d :pserver:anoncvs@cvs.freedesktop.org:/cvs/xapps co xwinwrap cd xwinwrap make sudo cp xwinwrap /usr/bin

Now lets start our video/movie as the Desktop Wallpaper!
First find a video/movie you would like to set as your backround and issue this command:
xwinwrap -ni -fs -s -st -sp -b -nf -- mplayer -wid WID -nosound "Steal This Film II.Xvid.avi" -loop 0

Now everything should be working fine, if you would like sound, remove -nosound

You can also display Screensavers as your background:
nice -n 15 ./xwinwrap -ni -o 0.20 -fs -s -sp -st -b -nf -- /usr/lib/xscreensaver/glmatrix -root -window-id WID
Credit for the screen saver hack goes out to wayne@fsckin

Comments (14)

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0 Vote up Vote down

Rob · 884 weeks ago

This is Awesome Thanks

1 reply · active 879 weeks ago

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justin · 879 weeks ago

i did this glmatrix screensaver trick and it went black and was flickering then my background was messed up and the only background i have and can use is the skydome effect (dackground in the 3d cube setting)at first my screen was black then i made my screen transparent so u can have some kind of visual and liek i said before the only desktop visual i have is my picture in skydome if you can help me with this i would gratefully appreciate it

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defcon 52p · 883 weeks ago

you can ls /usr/lib/xscreensaver/ and use any screensaver for the screensaver trick

+1 Vote up Vote down

Torty · 883 weeks ago

Hmm I get a Black Screen with the running screensaver in on the top .. Flickering .. not really useful ... is there something i missed ?

1 reply · active 879 weeks ago

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justin · 879 weeks ago

hey the same thing happen to me i think it has some thing to do with nautilus or something like that or gnome configuration

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dan · 883 weeks ago

love the hack mate.....but how do i stop it rofl

1 reply · active 883 weeks ago

+1 Vote up Vote down

defcon 52p · 883 weeks ago

lol, try ctrl-c in the terminal or use system monitor to kill the process if it was started with gnome

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dan · 883 weeks ago

dont worry figured it out hahaha

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Jubal · 881 weeks ago

Thanks used you instructions to get a live stream of the auckland harbour with boats sailing past as my desktop wallpaper now..

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=4914424

cheers

jubal

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yusuf hadi 0p · 881 weeks ago

whoa great! it surely beats vista dreamscene to dust!!

1 question though, when i clicked the button at the panel that minimize all the windows, the background movie minimized too,

any work around to solve this issue?

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mark · 880 weeks ago

the xwinwarp windows lies on top of the icons on the desktop. that can be a little disturbing if you increase the opacity.

is there a trick to place the icons on top?

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riku5464 · 874 weeks ago

VLC has a built in option that lets you play a video as your desktop.

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riku5464 · 874 weeks ago

http://vistarewired.com/2007/03/08/dreamscene-on-...

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Battousai · 855 weeks ago

This is wonderful!
Is there any way to get it to choose a random screensaver from a list of acceptable screensavers? For some of us... less decisive people? =P