This simple tutorial shows how to display live earth as desktop wallpaper in Ubuntu 22.04 and Ubuntu 24.04.

Ubuntu has Wallch wallpaper changer in system repository, which has option to show live earth as wallpaper. However, the app is no longer updated and the feature is broken for all current Ubuntu releases.

If you’re interested in viewing high-resolution 3d real-time image of the earth in your desktop, then there’s another free open-source tool can do the job.

It’s liewa (Live Earth Wallpapers), that supports all known geostationary satellites for the high resolution sentinel images, Nasa Solar Dynamics Observatory images and NASA astronomy picture of the day (Apod)!

By default, it uses GEOS-16 satellite for the earth image, that display a small earth in center of your screen. Though, the app has setting options to add or edit satellites.

Add, configure satellites

So, you can have more than one real-time images of the earth from different satellites displayed on your screen at the same time, in different size, with either natural color or geocolor.

How to Install Live Earth Wallpapers (Liewa)

The tool provides .deb package for downloading in its Github releases page:

After downloaded the .deb package, right-click on ‘Downloads’ folder and select “Open in Terminal”. Finally, run command to install it in pop-up terminal window:

sudo apt install ./liewa.deb

Finally, launch it from either start/applications menu or the overview screen depends on your desktop environment.

When the app window opens, configure canvas size, satellites, etc in first tab, then click on “Create New Scheduler” in Scheduler tab should start the live earth wallpaper.

Though, it takes quite a few seconds to apply, waiting for automatically start the service. If you can’t wait, try to open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command to manually start the service:

systemctl status --user liewa

Uninstall:

You can stop the live earth wallpaper by clicking on “Delete Scheduler” button in app window, then set another wallpaper via ‘Background’ settings.

To remove the software, simply open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command:

sudo apt remove --autoremove liewa

Got photo images in both light and dark style? There’s a super simple application to set them as dynamic wallpapers in GNOME 42+ desktop.

As you may know, GNOME 42+ support light and dark wallpapers that change automatically depends on system color scheme. Ubuntu 22.04 does not support the feature, but in upcoming Ubuntu 22.10 you may add your own ones into wallpaper selection dialog:

It’s easy to group your light and dark photo images as a single wallpaper selection. Just create a XML file under “.local/share/gnome-background-properties” (create folder if not exist), and write following rules:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE wallpapers SYSTEM "gnome-wp-list.dtd">
<wallpapers>
  <wallpaper deleted="false">
    <name>TYPE_NAME_HERE</name>
    <filename>/PATH/TO/PICTURE_LIGHT</filename>
    <filename-dark>/PATH/TO/PICTURE_DARK</filename-dark>
    <options>zoom</options>
    <shade_type>solid</shade_type>
    <pcolor>#3465a4</pcolor>
    <scolor>#000000</scolor>
  </wallpaper>
</wallpapers>

It will then be available in the “Appearance” settings pages (Ubuntu 22.10 will merge ‘Background’ into ‘Appearance’).

To make life easier, a stupid simple application called “Dynamic Wallpaper” is created to do the job. With it, you may just type a name, select the 2 photo images and click “Create” button.

As mentioned above, it automatically creates a XML file with the name you typed, and saves to “.local/share/gnome-background-properties” directory. It also makes a copy of the photo images into “.local/share/backgrounds“, and refers to them in the XML file.

When done, you may go to “Appearance” in GNOME Control Center (aka “Settings” utility) to select that wallpapers.

How to Install the “Dynamic Wallpaper” app

The tool is available to install as Flatpak package, that works in Ubuntu 22.10+, Fedora 36+, Arch and Manjaro Linux with GNOME Desktop.

1. First, search for and open terminal from ‘Activities’ overview (or press Ctrl+Alt+T on Ubuntu). When it opens, run command to install Flatpak daemon:

sudo apt install flatpak

2. Next, run the command below to install the tool:

flatpak install https://dl.flathub.org/repo/appstream/me.dusansimic.DynamicWallpaper.flatpakref

If you’re first time installing a Flatpak package, there will be also hundred MB run-time libraries to install.

Finally, click the top-left corner ‘Activities’, then search for and open the application:

Uninstall:

To remove the tool, open terminal and run command:

flatpak uninstall --delete-data me.dusansimic.DynamicWallpaper

And clear useless libraries via flatpak uninstall --unused.

This quick tutorial shows how to easily set a solid color as background wallpaper in your Ubuntu 22.04 or Ubuntu 24.04 PC/laptop.

To stay focused and increase productivity, user may set a solid color desktop background which can also reduce eye strain. And, a black background will consume significantly less power especially for AMOLED displays.

If you already downloaded a solid color wallpaper from web, or created one via an image editor, simply click the “Add Picture” button in system settings -> Background (or Appearance). Then, your image will be there as a choice.

Add Personal Wallpapers

Set Solid color background via Dconf Editor

Instead of using an image file, there’s a hidden option that could work better! Not only for Ubuntu, it also works on Fedora, Debian, Manjaro, and other Linux with GNOME Desktop.

1. Firstly, search for and install “Dconf Editor” configuration tool from either Ubuntu Software or App Center:

Or press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard, and run the command below in pop-up terminal to install the tool:

sudo apt install dconf-editor

2. Once installed, either press Windows (Super) key on keyboard or click the top-left corner “Activities”, then search for and open ‘Dconf Editor’

3. When the tool opens, navigate to ‘org/gnome/desktop/background‘ page. There you need to do:

• Clear the value of ‘picture-uri‘ and ‘picture-uri-dark‘ to disable current wallpapers for both light and dark mode. Click them one by one, disable “use default value”, and set empty content for custom value.
• Set ‘color-shading-type’ to ‘solid’ (usually default).
• Change value of ‘primary-color’ to display as background. (#000000 for dark, #ffffff for white. Or use color picker tool to get other color value)

For choice, you may set gradient color background, by setting ‘color-shading-type’ to ‘vertical’ or ‘horizontal’, and set color value of “secondary-color”.

Linux commands to set solid color background.

If you’re familiar with Linux command line, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open a terminal window.

When it opens, run the commands below one by one to disable current wallpapers for light and dark mode:

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri ''

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri-dark ''

In case you’ve set gradient color background before, reset the “color-shading-type” via command:

gsettings reset org.gnome.desktop.background color-shading-type

Finally, run the command below in set a solid color background (total dark for example):

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background primary-color '#000000'

How to Restore:

To restore the changes, simply open Settings -> Background and select a wallpaper as you want. Just note that you need to do this in both Light and Dark mode in Ubuntu 22.04 LTS.

For other Desktop Environments:

The steps above was written for the default GNOME Desktop. For other desktop environments, see below:

XFCE (XUbuntu)

For XFCE, the default desktop in XUbuntu and many other Linux, right-click on desktop and select “Desktop Settings“.

In pop-up dialog, choose “Solid color” from Color select box, and pick a color right after it. Finally, set Style to “None” to make it work.

KDE Plasma (KUbuntu, Ubuntu Studio)

KDE user can right-click on desktop and select “Configure Desktop and Wallpaper” to launch the configure dialog.

Then, choose “Plain Color” as Wallpaper type, and set your favorite color, finally click “Apply”.

MATE (Ubuntu MATE)

For MATE desktop, also right-click on desktop and select “Change Desktop Background” from pop-up menu.

Then, select the first image in top-left as background, and choose “Solid color” from Colors selection box, and click color picker to choose a color as you want.

Cinnamon (Ubuntu Cinnamon)

Also, right-click on desktop and select “Change Desktop Background”.

Then in pop-up dialog, navigate to “Settings” page, and do:

• Set “Picture aspect” to No picture.
• Change Background color to Solid color and choose a color.

LXQt (LUbuntu)

For LXQt desktop, right-click on desktop and select “Desktop Preferences” from context menu.

In pop-up dialog, navigate to “Background” tab, then do:

• Choose color via the button under “Background”.
• Select “Fill with background color only” for Wallpaper mode.
• Finally, click Apply.

Got some beautiful photo images? Let me show you how to set them as desktop slideshow, so it will be your Ubuntu background wallpaper and switch automatically in certain time interval.

Option 1: Use Shotwell

Using Shotwell is the easiest way to do the job in Ubuntu. You don’t need to install anything, as it available out-of-the-box.

Just search for and open the app from Activities overview screen. Import (via File menu) and select your photos (Ctrl or Shift + Click), then you may use “File -> Set as Desktop Slideshow” option to set them as wallpaper and change automatically.

You may set time interval from 5 seconds up to 1 day. And, the slideshow will work even in next boot, until you select another wallpaper in “System Settings -> Background” page.

Option 2: Use Gnome Extension

There’s an extension can do the job, not only for Ubuntu, but also for Fedora and other Linux using GNOME desktop (e.g., Arch, Manjaro, CentOS, etc).

It’s light, simple and just do the basic function as well as options to manually go next wallpaper, and stop changing automatically.

Install the extension

Firstly, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal and run the command to install the agent package:

sudo apt install chrome-gnome-shell

Secondly, turn on the toggle icon in the link page below to install the extension.

NOTE: The pre-installed Firefox does not support installing Gnome Extension so far, use another browser or install the Deb version instead. And, for the first time, you need to install browser extension and refresh the page to see the toggle button.

Option 3: Use Variety

Besides automatically changing your desktop wallpaper, Variety is a good choice that also supports for downloading photo images from flickr, deviantart, unsplash, etc.

What makes it different is that it supports displaying custom text and digital clock on wallpaper. As well, it can apply random effect to your wallpapers, e.g., blur, oil painting.

To install Variety in Ubuntu, either press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal and run command:

sudo apt install variety

or just search for and click install in Ubuntu Software.

Option 4: Use Wallch

Wallch was a popular wallpaper managing app for Linux. Though it’s not been updated for a long period of time, the basic desktop slideshow function still works. And, it can be a choice for old desktop environments.

However, the live earth, daily picture, wallpaper clocks and live website features never work in my case.

To install Wallch, either use Ubuntu Software or run command in terminal:

sudo apt install wallch

Option 5: Group your images via XML file

If you would like to add your desktop slideshow as a choice in Background selection page, then this is for you.

1.) Create XML:

Firstly, you need to create a XML file that defines which photo images to use, how long each wallpaper will be displayed, transition time, etc.

To make things easy, you may install “Dynamic Wallpaper Editor” by running following 2 commands one by one in terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T):

sudo apt install flatpak

flatpak install https://dl.flathub.org/repo/appstream/com.github.maoschanz.DynamicWallpaperEditor.flatpakref

2.) Make use of XML:

After creating XML file or files, you need to put them into “~/.local/share/backgrounds” folder.

• Run command in terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) to create the folder in case it does not exist.

  mkdir -p ~/.local/share/backgrounds

• Open that folder in file manager to do copy & paste things.

  nautilus .local/share/backgrounds/

For each XML, you have to create another XML under “~/.local/share/gnome-background-properties”.

• Run command to create that folder in case it does not exist.

  mkdir -p ~/.local/share/gnome-background-properties

• Open that folder in file manager to create another XML files.

  nautilus ~/.local/share/gnome-background-properties

In this new XML file, you need to add following lines:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE wallpapers SYSTEM "gnome-wp-list.dtd">
<wallpapers>
  <wallpaper>
    <name>TYPE NAME HERE</name>
    <filename>PATH-TO-DESKTOP-SLIDESHOW-XML</filename>
    <options>zoom</options>
    <pcolor>#2c001e</pcolor>
    <scolor>#2c001e</scolor>
    <shade_type>solid</shade_type>
  </wallpaper>
</wallpapers>

As the picture shows, you have to type the full path (‘/home/USERNAME/.loca/share/…’) to the generated XML you created in previous step. If you did everything correctly, you should see the new choice (with little clock) in Background settings page.

That’s all. Enjoy!