xantfarm on the root window
Mike Ginou
mike at ginou.ca
Wed Aug 31 13:55:52 UTC 2005
My extraordinarily unhelpful response is: Yes, of course!
Google tells me that there is a gconf command line tool, so a bash
script should be able to do what you want without too much difficulty. I
have never used the tool, gconftool-2, nor read the man page, so I can't
really help you out with the syntax.
This link shows you how it's done though:
http://www.gnome.org/learn/admin-guide/latest/ch01s04.html
Good Luck,
Mike
Toby Kelsey wrote:
> xantfarm is a simple but fun amusement (the source can be found with
> google and is easily compiled).
> However there is a problem running it in Ubuntu. If you try to run a
> program on the root window like xantfarm or xfishtank or xsetroot, they
> appear not to work (just have no effect) because the desktop wallpaper
> is controlled by nautilus.
>
> I have found two ways of getting xantfarm to work:
>
> (a) As a screensaver: put the executable in /usr/local/bin, add a line
> to $HOME/.xscreensaver like this:
>
> "AntFarm (30 ants)" /usr/local/bin/xantfarm -num 30 -c 40
> $HOME/.xantfarm-save \n\
>
> and run xantfarm as a preview from xscreensaver-demo (or use it as your
> main screensaver), or
>
> (b) Disable the desktop: run gconf-editor and uncheck apps > nautilus >
> preferences > show_desktop, this will turn off whatever background
> image/colour you have (and root menus) and make the root window
> useable. Now run xantfarm as a normal background process. If you stop
> it you will be left with the last image it produced.
>
> My question is, can you (in a script or programmatically) enable
> xantfarm or xfishtank to run in the root window such that when they are
> stopped the usual/previous wallpaper or background is restored, without
> having to repeatedly use gconf-editor?
>
> Toby
>
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