Setting Up Aerial Screensaver on Linux

*Setup.md

• sudo apt install xscreensaver jq aria2 notify-osd
• Make a directory in $HOME called Aerial
• Copy aerial-downloader.sh below into $HOME/Aerial
• Run it once
• crontab -e
• 00 10 * * * sh $HOME/Aerial/aerial-downloader.sh to download new stuff (if any) at 10:00 every day
• nano ~/.xscreensaver and add the code in the file below
• Open up the XScreensaver app and pick "Apple Aerial"
• gnome-session-properties and add xscreensaver -nosplash to the list
• If you want, go into the System Settings and add a keyboard shortcut for Shift + Win + L to launch the command xscreensaver-command -lock

Add to List in ~.xscreensaver

  Best:     "Apple Aerial"  cvlc --loop --fullscreen --random                 \
                                  --drawable-xid                              \
                                  $XSCREENSAVER_WINDOW                        \
                                  --no-video-title-show                       \
                                  $HOME/Aerial/*                            \n\

aerial-downloader.sh

#!/usr/bin/bash

cd $HOME/Aerial/

url='http://a1.phobos.apple.com/us/r1000/000/Features/atv/AutumnResources/videos/entries.json'

curl $url \
  | jq -r '.[].assets[].url' \
  > .aria.urls

aria2c -x10 -i .aria.urls \
  --auto-file-renaming=false \
  --conditional-get=true \
  --allow-overwrite=true \
  --save-session=.aria.session \
  --force-save=true

videoscount="$(find $HOME/Aerial/ -name '*.mov' | wc -l)"

notify-send -t 30000 -i face-wink "Checked in with Apple!" "There are currently ${videoscount} videos in the directory"

Thanks to @Dhertz for the inspiration

can u do it with video plz

Superb. Runs wonderful on my new MINT desktop.

There are now 13 GB of data in the Aerial directory. Some have a names like "b"+ and have moderate size - others named "comp..." or "plate..." are around 500 MB. Is there a system behind the naming? Are they different solutions to choose from?

I'm a newbie to Linux and did it without problems. Brilliant. Cheers.

You might want to add that this requires vlc to be installed...

sudo apt install vlc

This mostly works. But the screensaver seems to run translucent, and so I can still see the windows behind the screen. Where do I change that ?

I got it to work by taking out the argument specifying the window (--drawable-xid $XSCREENSAVER_WINDOW). w it is

Now it is no longer a transparent window on which it draws, but I get a bunch of errors about invalid frame size and unable to seek errors superimposed on the video.

So I added a 2>>/dev/null to the command as well, and that seems to have done the trick for now.

Cant get this to work. On Ubuntu the .xscreensaver keeps getting overwritten.

Apple Aerial doesn't appear in the list.

Also "and add the code in the file below" where?
Add to list? what list?

You instructions aren't clear to me

edit:
Figured it out. You included "best: " in the to add string but thats wrong.

Could not get cvlc version to work under Ubuntu 18.0.4 however the "old" version using mpv works fine!:
sudo apt install xscreensaver mpv jq aria2 notify-osd instead of sudo apt install xscreensaver vlc jq aria2 notify-osd

And then add the following to the .xscreensaver file:
Best: "Apple Aerial" mpv --really-quiet --shuffle --no-audio --fs --loop=inf --no-stop-screensaver --wid=$XSCREENSAVER_WINDOW --panscan=1 $HOME/Aerial/*.mov

In Ubuntu 18.10 I edited config file like following:

- GL: 		"Apple Aerial" 	cvlc --loop --fullscreen --random	      \
				  2>>/dev/null				      \
				  --no-video-title-show $HOME/Aerial/*	    \n\

and it works perfectly :)