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wisemagic

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From: Louisiana U.S.A.

Registered: 2011-09-17

Posts: 41

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Desktop Wallpaper not rotating

I use 4 workspaces and have a folder with 1000 wallpapers, set to randomly rotate every hour. I've noticed they stop rotating all together after a day or two. After a reboot they rotate again for a day or two, and stop again. Is there a service getting killed or needing restarted?

Blacklight

Banned

Registered: 2026-08-14

Posts: 40

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Re: Desktop Wallpaper not rotating

It sounds like you have a technical question, that requires technical expertise

If you see the '4.20' release notes... there were just some updates with the subsystem responsible for random wallpaper rotation, I guess if nobody familiar with it will respond, that will lead you in the right direction

It also sounds, like you answered your own question basically, and ran up against the limitations of the random wallpaper rotation, which present themselves after 'a day or two'

(I will add this is the Community subsection of xfce.org and General discussion: "Post here if your subject doesn't fit anywhere else." a section appropriate for discussion generally in regards to xfce)

(it may be more appropriate in the "Support" subsection of xfce.org which is in fact the section for requests for support using xfce.)

Last edited by Blacklight (2026-08-20 16:21:54)

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 12,680

Re: Desktop Wallpaper not rotating

I use 4 workspaces and have a folder with 1000 wallpapers, set to randomly rotate every hour. I've noticed they stop rotating all together after a day or two. After a reboot they rotate again for a day or two, and stop again. Is there a service getting killed or needing restarted?

Try running xfdesktop in debug mode in a terminal window:

xfdesktop -Q
xfdesktop -e

...and let it run in the terminal window. When the wallpaper stops changing, see if something is posted in the debug output - or post it back for a second set of eyes to review.

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wisemagic

Member

From: Louisiana U.S.A.

Registered: 2011-09-17

Posts: 41

Website

Re: Desktop Wallpaper not rotating

It sounds like you have a technical question, that requires technical expertise

If you see the '4.20' release notes... there were just some updates with the subsystem responsible for random wallpaper rotation, I guess if nobody familiar with it will respond, that will lead you in the right direction

It also sounds, like you answered your own question basically, and ran up against the limitations of the random wallpaper rotation, which present themselves after 'a day or two'

(I will add this is the Community subsection of xfce.org and General discussion: "Post here if your subject doesn't fit anywhere else." a section appropriate for discussion generally in regards to xfce)

(it may be more appropriate in the "Support" subsection of xfce.org which is in fact the section for requests for support using xfce.)

Thanks. I'll do that. I am running 4.20

wisemagic

Member

From: Louisiana U.S.A.

Registered: 2011-09-17

Posts: 41

Website

Re: Desktop Wallpaper not rotating

I ran in debug mode but never really saw any kind of error message.

Gemini said: "Yes, this is a known long-standing quirk in Xfce's desktop manager. The background rotation feature relies on a built-in GLib timer mechanism. After extended periods of uptime (usually several days) or after the system goes through multiple sleep/wake suspension cycles, this internal timer occasionally "stalls" or stops triggering, freezing your wallpaper rotation in place. It isn't crashing completely (which is why your desktop background doesn't turn black), but the background rotation daemon simply goes dormant."

MX Linux has a page about it. https://mxlinux.org/blog/xfce-4-20-and- … allpapers/

I didn't try their "fix". I did work with Gemini and wrote a bash script to randomly change the wallpapers across 4 workspaces, and run it from cron. This actually works very well.

So, I can't mark this as solved, but it's not an issue for me now. Thanks

Last edited by wisemagic (2026-08-27 23:20:03)