Archives For November 30, 1999

automatic wallpaper changer

Variety automatic wallpaper changer has reached the 0.5 release a few hours ago. Here’s what’s new and how to install it in Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 15.04 and Ubuntu 12.04

For those who have never heard of Variety, see the below description from the launchpad page

Variety changes the desktop wallpaper on a regular basis, using user-specified or automatically downloaded images.

Variety sits conveniently as an indicator in the panel and can be easily paused and resumed. The mouse wheel can be used to scroll wallpapers back and forth until you find the perfect one for your current mood.

Apart from displaying images from local folders, several different online sources can be used to fetch wallpapers according to user-specified criteria.

Variety can also automatically apply various fancy filters to the displayed images – charcoal painting, oil painting, heavy blurring, etc. – so that your desktop is always fresh and unique. Applying a heavy blurring filter for example is a great way to get abstract-looking and unobtrusive, yet colorful wallpapers, similar in spirit to the default one in Ubuntu.

Video Demo:

Release Highlights of the v0.5:

  • Added Reddit support
  • Show Next and Previous in main menu only in non-Unity DEs (Unity supports indicator scroll, no need for them there)
  • Adding Wallhaven.cc support
  • More details at launchpad.net/variety/trunk/0.5.0

Install / Upgrade Variety in Ubuntu:

The packages have been made into the official PPA, available for Ubuntu 15.04, Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 12.04, Ubuntu 10.04, Linux Mint and derivatives.

To add the PPA and install the software, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run commands below one by one:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:peterlevi/ppa

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install variety

Don’t want to add PPA? Download the package “variety_0.5.0_all.deb” at:

Download Variety .deb Package

Once downloaded, click to open it with Ubuntu Software Center and finally install the software.

NOTE: if you have a previous version installed, you need to remove the config files under user’s “.config/variety” folder (press Ctrl+H to view hidden folders) to use Wallhaven.cc instead of Wallbase.cc.

download-wallpaper

This tutorial will show you how to install Variety wallpaper changer on Ubuntu 13.10, 13.04, 12.04 & Linux Mint 13, 14, 15 via ppa repository.

UPDATE 2024: Variety is available in system repository since Ubuntu 16.04! However, some features are NO longer working since the PPA is not being updated any-more.

To try out variety in Ubuntu 24.04, Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 18.04, and Ubuntu 16.04, press “Ctrl+Alt+T” to open terminal, then run 2 commands below one by one:

  • First refresh system package cache:
    sudo apt update
  • Then install variety:
    sudo apt install variety

To uninstall the app, use command:

sudo apt remove --autoremove variety

Variety is an automatic wallpaper changer, downloader & manager. It makes easy to create Desktop Wallpaper Slideshows on Ubuntu & Linux Mint.

Variety changes your desktop wallpaper on a regular basis, using user-specified or automatically downloaded images. It has an indicator applet on your panel that allows to easily change wallpapers.

variety-indicator

Variety can download wallpapers from wallbase.cc, ns223506.ovh.net, wallpapers.net, flickr.com, imgur.com, deviantart.com, interfacelift.com, vladstudio.com.

To install this software, press Ctrl+Alt+T to open terminal, then follow the below steps:

1.) Copy and paste this command and run in terminal, it add the stable ppa to your system.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:peterlevi/ppa

2.) If you’ve already installed Synaptic Package Manger, open it and click Reload button. Search for and install variety package.

If not, run this command instead:

sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get install variety

Enjoy!