A simple, reliable Bash script that gives you time-of-day dynamic wallpapers on XFCE.

DynamicWallpapers-XFCE.md

🖼️ XFCE Dynamic Wallpaper Script (Time-Based)

📁 Example wallpaper layout

~/Pictures/wallpapers/
├── night.jpg
├── morning.jpg
├── noon.jpg
└── evening.jpg

You can name them whatever you want — just update the script.

---

📜 Script: xfce-dynamic-wallpaper.sh

#!/usr/bin/env bash

# --- CONFIG ---
WALLPAPER_DIR="$HOME/Pictures/wallpapers"

NIGHT="$WALLPAPER_DIR/night.jpg"
MORNING="$WALLPAPER_DIR/morning.jpg"
NOON="$WALLPAPER_DIR/noon.jpg"
EVENING="$WALLPAPER_DIR/evening.jpg"

# --- GET CURRENT HOUR ---
HOUR=$(date +%H)

# --- PICK WALLPAPER ---
if (( HOUR < 6 )); then
    WP="$NIGHT"
elif (( HOUR < 12 )); then
    WP="$MORNING"
elif (( HOUR < 17 )); then
    WP="$NOON"
elif (( HOUR < 20 )); then
    WP="$EVENING"
else
    WP="$NIGHT"
fi

# --- APPLY WALLPAPER TO ALL MONITORS ---
for path in $(xfconf-query -c xfce4-desktop -l | grep last-image); do
    xfconf-query -c xfce4-desktop -p "$path" -s "$WP"
done

---

🔧 Setup

1️⃣ Make it executable

chmod +x xfce-dynamic-wallpaper.sh

2️⃣ Test it

./xfce-dynamic-wallpaper.sh

Wallpaper should change immediately.

---

⏰ Run it automatically (recommended)

Option A: Cron (simple)

Run every 10 minutes:

crontab -e

Add:

*/10 * * * * DISPLAY=:0 $HOME/xfce-dynamic-wallpaper.sh

Option B: XFCE Autostart

• Settings → Session and Startup → Application Autostart
• Add:

/home/youruser/xfce-dynamic-wallpaper.sh

---

🧠 Notes

• Works on XFCE 4.14+
• Supports multi-monitor
• No feh, no GNOME, no hacks
• You can add more time ranges or wallpapers easily

---

To Do:

• 🌅 smooth transitions (fake fades)
• 🌍 per-monitor wallpapers
• 📅 exact sunrise/sunset switching
• 🔁 GNOME XML → XFCE conversion