Re: [Hampshire] Xearth and Ubuntu desktop

----- Original Message -----
From: "Samuel Penn" <sam@???>
To: "Hampshire LUG Discussion List" <hampshire@???>
Sent: Saturday, February 17, 2007 6:23 PM
Subject: Re: [Hampshire] Xearth and Ubuntu desktop


> On Saturday 17 February 2007 13:23, Rob Malpass wrote:
>> Hi all
>>
>> For someone that knows, this should be an easy one....
>>
>> I'm trying to get xearth working on Ubuntu - and I've almost managed it.
>> Essentially it's installed and runnning ok - except I can't see it. In
>> fact the only way I knew it was working ok was when I shut down and I saw
>> it for a split second before the machine powered down.
>>
>> I conclude (perhaps incorrectly) that the image created by xearth was ok
>> all the time but it was underneath my desktop. However I'd already
>> switched off wallpaper. I can make it visible in a window with the
>> -noroot option but I want it as my desktop wallpaper. Presumably this
>> is
>> an easy one - anyone any ideas?
>
> What desktop are you using? xearth puts the image on the X desktop. KDE
> (and presumably Gnome) places its own desktop image over the top of this
> (even if the 'image' is just a flat colour), so you won't see the xearth
> picture.
>
> Under KDE, you have to set up xearth (or xplanet, which does the same
> sort of thing, but has a lot more options, and isn't limited to just
> the Earth) you have to set the KDE background to use the output of a
> program (basically, it tells xearth to generate an image to a file,
> then loads that file itself). I believe KDE has some settings by
> default for xplanet (they're listed in my KDE config, but I used to
> run xplanet, so may have added them myself ages ago).
>
> Gnome might have similar options (insert (in)appropriate comments from
> Linus at this point :-) ). Ditto for other desktops/window managers etc.
> I've only ever used it with KDE however.
>

> -- 
> Be seeing you,                         http://www.glendale.org.uk
> Sam.                        Mail/IM (Jabber): sam@???

>
> --
> Please post to: Hampshire@???
> Web Interface: https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/hampshire
> LUG URL: http://www.hantslug.org.uk
> --------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>
> --
> No virus found in this incoming message.
> Checked by AVG Free Edition.
> Version: 7.5.441 / Virus Database: 268.18.1/690 - Release Date: 16/02/2007
> 14:25
>
>

Thanks Sam.

I'm running gnome. I thought getting xearth to output a gif would be the
answer - but to the best of my knowledge, this is a one-off. E.g. if I run

xearth -gif > output.gif

then it will produce the current picture and stop. Presumably there's some
way of getting xearth to keep updating, but how do I tell gnome to display
the latest image?

Cheers
Rob