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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