Dual Monitor Wallpapers

slackline · 2016-04-27 07:38:07

Hi,

Got a second monitor recently and have set it up in portrait rather than landscape.

I have a host of wallpapers that I use and randomly change every ten minutes and would like to have portrait on one and landscape on the other. To achieve this I put the pictures in their respective directories...

~/Dropbox/Photos/wallpaper/landscape/
~/Dropbox/Photos/wallpaper/portrait/

Then on each screen I right-click > Desktop Settings and select the appropriate folder for each screen (the dialog indicates that I can 'Move this dialog to the display you want to edit settings for'). This works ok in the first instance but as the pictures start cycling the portrait display switches to using the landscape directory rather than sticking with choosing pictures from the portrait directory I specified.

I found a similar thread but do not have Nautilus running at all. However the information requested in that thread on my system is...

$ xfconf-query -c xfce4-desktop -lv
/backdrop/screen0/monitor0/workspace0/backdrop-cycle-enable      true
/backdrop/screen0/monitor0/workspace0/backdrop-cycle-timer       5
/backdrop/screen0/monitor0/workspace0/color-style                0
/backdrop/screen0/monitor0/workspace0/image-style                3
/backdrop/screen0/monitor0/workspace0/last-image                 /home/neil/Dropbox/Photos/wallpapers/landscape/second_sister_stanage.jpg
/backdrop/screen0/monitor0/workspace1/backdrop-cycle-enable      true
/backdrop/screen0/monitor0/workspace1/color-style                0
/backdrop/screen0/monitor0/workspace1/image-style                5
/backdrop/screen0/monitor0/workspace1/last-image                 /usr/share/backgrounds/xfce/xfce-blue.jpg
/backdrop/screen0/monitor0/workspace2/backdrop-cycle-enable      true
/backdrop/screen0/monitor0/workspace2/color-style                0
/backdrop/screen0/monitor0/workspace2/image-style                5
/backdrop/screen0/monitor0/workspace2/last-image                 /home/neil/Dropbox/Photos/wallpapers/portrait/burbage_bouldering.jpg
/backdrop/screen0/monitor0/workspace3/backdrop-cycle-enable      true
/backdrop/screen0/monitor0/workspace3/color-style                0
/backdrop/screen0/monitor0/workspace3/image-style                5
/backdrop/screen0/monitor0/workspace3/last-image                 /home/neil/Dropbox/Photos/wallpapers/portrait/wide_is_love.jpg
/backdrop/screen0/monitor1/workspace0/backdrop-cycle-enable      true
/backdrop/screen0/monitor1/workspace0/backdrop-cycle-timer       5
/backdrop/screen0/monitor1/workspace0/color-style                0
/backdrop/screen0/monitor1/workspace0/image-style                3
/backdrop/screen0/monitor1/workspace0/last-image                 /home/neil/Dropbox/Photos/wallpapers/landscape/seamstress_shadow.jpg
/backdrop/screen0/monitor1/workspace1/backdrop-cycle-enable      true
/backdrop/screen0/monitor1/workspace1/color-style                0
/backdrop/screen0/monitor1/workspace1/image-style                5
/backdrop/screen0/monitor1/workspace1/last-image                 /usr/share/backgrounds/xfce/xfce-teal.jpg
/backdrop/screen0/monitor1/workspace2/color-style                0
/backdrop/screen0/monitor1/workspace2/image-style                5
/backdrop/screen0/monitor1/workspace2/last-image                 /usr/share/backgrounds/xfce/xfce-teal.jpg
/backdrop/screen0/monitor1/workspace3/color-style                0
/backdrop/screen0/monitor1/workspace3/image-style                5
/backdrop/screen0/monitor1/workspace3/last-image                 /usr/share/backgrounds/xfce/xfce-teal.jpg
/backdrop/screen0/monitorHDMI2/workspace0/backdrop-cycle-enable  true
/backdrop/screen0/monitorHDMI2/workspace0/color-style            0
/backdrop/screen0/monitorHDMI2/workspace0/image-style            5
/backdrop/screen0/monitorHDMI2/workspace0/last-image             /home/neil/Dropbox/Photos/wallpapers/90_16664179227_o.jpg
/backdrop/screen0/monitorHDMI2/workspace1/color-style            0
/backdrop/screen0/monitorHDMI2/workspace1/image-style            5
/backdrop/screen0/monitorHDMI2/workspace1/last-image             /usr/share/backgrounds/xfce/xfce-teal.jpg
/backdrop/screen0/monitorHDMI2/workspace2/color-style            0
/backdrop/screen0/monitorHDMI2/workspace2/image-style            5
/backdrop/screen0/monitorHDMI2/workspace2/last-image             /usr/share/backgrounds/xfce/xfce-teal.jpg
/backdrop/screen0/monitorHDMI2/workspace3/color-style            0
/backdrop/screen0/monitorHDMI2/workspace3/image-style            5
/backdrop/screen0/monitorHDMI2/workspace3/last-image             /usr/share/backgrounds/xfce/xfce-teal.jpg
/backdrop/single-workspace-mode                                  true
/backdrop/single-workspace-number                                0
/desktop-icons/file-icons/show-device-removable                  false
/desktop-icons/file-icons/show-filesystem                        false
/desktop-icons/file-icons/show-home                              false
/desktop-icons/file-icons/show-network-removable                 false
/desktop-icons/file-icons/show-removable                         true
/desktop-icons/file-icons/show-trash                             false
/desktop-icons/file-icons/show-unknown-removable                 true
/last/window-height                                              538
/last/window-width                                               637

I notice a couple of that ts suggesting that I have different wallpapers on each workspace of each monitor, this isn't the case since on both desktop configurations I have 'Apply to all workspaces' selected, so I would expect one portrait picture to be used for all workspaces on monitor0 and one landscape picture to be used on all workspaces on monitor1.

Could it be that its because of the following line....

/backdrop/single-workspace-mode                                  true
/backdrop/single-workspace-number                                0

...and that 'single-workspace-mode' should be 'false'? If so how do I change as the method I thought would do so (see above description) doesn't appear to be being recognised/used.

Its a very minor annoyance but if anyone has suggestions/ideas that would be great.

Thanks in advance,

slackline

Last edited by slackline (2016-04-27 07:53:06)

ToZ · 2016-04-27 12:35:49

I'm just testing this on my set up now (dual monitors but no portrait mode - both in landscape). I have setup one directory for one monitor and a second directory for the second monitor (as in your scenario).

It seems to work well - there is no jumping to the other directory as you are noticing. Each monitor seems to cycle on the directory specified.

The "Apply to all workspaces" is strange, though. Its applied at the whole desktop level, meaning that you can't have one monitor use the same image on all workspaces and another monitor with individual images per workspace. However, In my case, having it checked or unchecked doesn't affect the outcome.

What version of xfdesktop are you using?

slackline · 2016-04-27 13:19:39

Hi ToZ,

Thanks for taking the time to investigate.

The version of xfdesktop I'm using is 4.12.3 (the most recent available in Gentoo's Portage)...

$ xfdesktop -V

This is xfdesktop version 4.12.3, running on Xfce 4.12.
Built with GTK+ 2.24.28, linked with GTK+ 2.24.30.
Build options:
    Desktop Menu:        enabled
    Desktop Icons:       enabled
    Desktop File Icons:  enabled

Its a little strange (to me) that workspace1-3 on both monitor0 and monitor1 list four different images as they all show the same thing.

The Display dialogue on the portrait monitor switches to using the landscape directory no matter how many times I've tried changing it. It just won't stick with the portrait directory.

EDIT :

By way of illustration here is a screenshot of the desktop....

The two full pictures are the screens (the snowy section and artefacts top right must be something to do with the fact that the screens are not the same dimensions).

The first picture on the furthest left which is meant to be portrait is located in my landscape directory and is this picture

Whilst the second picture bottom right which is meant to be landscape is also in the landscape directory and is this picture

Last edited by slackline (2016-04-27 14:25:08)

ToZ · 2016-04-27 14:12:43

slackline wrote:

The version of xfdesktop I'm using is 4.12.3 (the most recent available in Gentoo's Portage)...

I'm actually running the version compiled from git so its more up-to-date. There have been a few bug fixes since 4.12.3:
- https://bugzilla.xfce.org/show_bug.cgi?id=12115
- https://bugzilla.xfce.org/show_bug.cgi?id=12071
- https://bugzilla.xfce.org/show_bug.cgi?id=12339
...but I'm not sure if they're relevant to your situation. Are you getting any xfdesktop messages or crashes in your log files?

Its a little strange (to me) that workspace1-3 on both monitor0 and monitor1 list four different images as they all show the same thing.

That's actually normal - it just stores information about the last used images for those workspaces in case you disable the setting. When enabled, xfdesktop ignores those settings.

Can you try deleting/moving the ~/.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/xfce4-desktop.xml while not logged in? It will be re-created anew on the next login. You will also lose all of your desktop settings, so you'll need to reset them.

While you're logged out, delete the ~/.cache/sessions directory.
I'm not sure if this will help, but it will re-create a fresh xfdesktop slate for you to try.

You can also try running xfdesktop in debug mode to see if anything interesting shows up while the wallpapers are switching:

xfdesktop -Q
xfdesktop --enable-debug

slackline · 2016-04-27 14:26:26

Ok, I'll have to try those out tomorrow as this my computer at work and I've lots to do today. I'll report back tomorrow on the effects of deleting (after backing up) the files you're suggesting.

Cheers,

slackline

slackline · 2016-04-28 07:19:24

Logged out, moved ~/.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/xfce4-desktop.xml and deleted ~/.conf/session and logged back in.

Set the wallpapers as I previously described and when the cycle through the portrait monitor continues to use the Portrait directory I configure it to. Taking a screenshot still results in artefacts where there is no screen but its working fine....

Thanks for taking the time to work through and find a solution ToZ, very much appreciated.

slackline

Last edited by slackline (2016-04-28 07:30:26)

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#1 2016-04-27 07:38:07

Dual Monitor Wallpapers

#2 2016-04-27 12:35:49

Re: Dual Monitor Wallpapers

#3 2016-04-27 13:19:39

Re: Dual Monitor Wallpapers

#4 2016-04-27 14:12:43

Re: Dual Monitor Wallpapers

#5 2016-04-27 14:26:26

Re: Dual Monitor Wallpapers

#6 2016-04-28 07:19:24

Re: Dual Monitor Wallpapers

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