{"id":47407,"date":"2024-10-22T13:31:33","date_gmt":"2024-10-22T13:31:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/?p=47407"},"modified":"2025-09-01T01:39:00","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T01:39:00","slug":"video-animated-wallpaper-ubuntu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/2024\/10\/video-animated-wallpaper-ubuntu\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Set Your Video as Animated Wallpaper in Ubuntu 24.04"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/hidamari-icon.webp\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-47408\" src=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/hidamari-icon-250x250.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"250\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/hidamari-icon-250x250.webp 250w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/hidamari-icon-300x300.webp 300w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/hidamari-icon-700x700.webp 700w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/hidamari-icon-768x768.webp 768w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/hidamari-icon.webp 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>This tutorial shows how to easily set your video playback as animated desktop wallpaper in Ubuntu and other Linux!<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve written about how to do the job in Ubuntu using <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/cheesecakeufo\/komorebi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Komorebi<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/ghostlexly\/gpu-video-wallpaper\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Gpu Video Wallpaper<\/a>. However, both seems no longer being actively development.<\/p>\n<p>So here I&#8217;m going to introduce you <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/jeffshee\/hidamari\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Hidamari<\/a>, a free open-source video wallpaper application written in Python. Which, provides an easy to use interface to <b>play local video, steam online video (e.g., YouTube), or set a web page as desktop wallpaper.<\/b><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_47409\" style=\"width: 620px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/animated-wallpaper-ubuntu.webp\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-47409\" class=\"size-large wp-image-47409\" src=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/animated-wallpaper-ubuntu-700x394.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"610\" height=\"343\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/animated-wallpaper-ubuntu-700x394.webp 700w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/animated-wallpaper-ubuntu-300x169.webp 300w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/animated-wallpaper-ubuntu-768x432.webp 768w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/animated-wallpaper-ubuntu-1536x864.webp 1536w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/animated-wallpaper-ubuntu-1320x743.webp 1320w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/animated-wallpaper-ubuntu.webp 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 610px) 100vw, 610px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-47409\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">play local video as wallpaper in Ubuntu<\/p><\/div>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Hidamari uses <b>VLC as backend<\/b> for video playback, meaning it supports a wide range of video codecs. And, it supports <b>hardware accelerated video decoding<\/b> to offload the process to GPU for less CPU usage. Sadly, hardware acceleration so far does NOT work for NVIDIA GPU on Wayland session.<\/p>\n<p>In my case, the video wallpaper takes only 1% CPU and 4% GPU on my laptop with i5-8350U (integrated GPU).<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/hidamari-cpuacc.webp\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-47410\" src=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/hidamari-cpuacc-700x426.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"610\" height=\"371\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/hidamari-cpuacc-700x426.webp 700w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/hidamari-cpuacc-300x183.webp 300w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/hidamari-cpuacc-768x467.webp 768w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/hidamari-cpuacc.webp 1178w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 610px) 100vw, 610px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The app also support playing videos from streaming services (e.g., YouTube) as background wallpaper. It uses the popular <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/yt-dlp\/yt-dlp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">yt-dlp<\/a> downloader as backend that supports thousands of sites.<\/p>\n<p>Moreover, it can display any website as well as local HTML page as background wallpaper. And, desktop menu and icons are still working during video wallpaper playback.<\/p>\n<p>Other features include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Autostart video wallpaper at login.<\/li>\n<li>Auto pause playback when a window is maximized or goes full-screen mode (X11 only so far).<\/li>\n<li>Multiple monitor support.<\/li>\n<li>Support using video frame as static wallpaper with blur effect.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Install Hidamari and set Video wallpaper<\/h3>\n<p>Hidamari is available to install as <a href=\"https:\/\/flathub.org\/apps\/io.github.jeffshee.Hidamari\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Flatpak package<\/a> that runs in sandbox environment. Meaning it can works on most Linux, including Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, Linux Mint, and even old Ubuntu 18.04.<\/p>\n<p><b>Linux Mint 21\/22<\/b> and <b>Fedora 39\/40+<\/b> (with 3rd party repository enabled) can search for and install the package from either Software Manager or GNOME Software.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_47412\" style=\"width: 620px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/hidamari-mint.webp\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-47412\" class=\"size-large wp-image-47412\" src=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/hidamari-mint-700x534.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"610\" height=\"465\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/hidamari-mint-700x534.webp 700w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/hidamari-mint-300x229.webp 300w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/hidamari-mint-768x586.webp 768w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/hidamari-mint.webp 852w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 610px) 100vw, 610px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-47412\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hidamari in Linux Mint&#8217;s software manager<\/p><\/div>\n<p>While Ubuntu and other Linux can open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run the commands below one by one to get it:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>First, open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command to enable Flatpak support:\n<pre>sudo apt install flatpak<\/pre>\n<p>Old Ubuntu 18.04 user may need to add <a href=\"https:\/\/launchpad.net\/~flatpak\/+archive\/ubuntu\/stable\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">this PPA<\/a> first for the most recent daemon package.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/apt-flatpak-noble.webp\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-45732\" src=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/apt-flatpak-noble-700x501.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"610\" height=\"437\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/apt-flatpak-noble-700x501.webp 700w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/apt-flatpak-noble-300x215.webp 300w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/apt-flatpak-noble-768x550.webp 768w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/apt-flatpak-noble.webp 786w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 610px) 100vw, 610px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Then, add the Flathub repository which hosts the software package:\n<pre>flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https:\/\/dl.flathub.org\/repo\/flathub.flatpakrepo<\/pre>\n<p>For other Linux, follow the official <a href=\"https:\/\/flatpak.org\/setup\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">setup guide<\/a> to enable Flatpak support.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/flathub-add.webp\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-47289\" src=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/flathub-add-700x257.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"610\" height=\"224\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/flathub-add-700x257.webp 700w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/flathub-add-300x110.webp 300w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/flathub-add.webp 706w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 610px) 100vw, 610px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Finally, run command to install the Hidamari Flatpak package:\n<pre>flatpak install flathub io.github.jeffshee.Hidamari<\/pre>\n<p>As the package runs in sandbox, it also needs to download run-time libraries if you&#8217;re first time installing a Flatpak package.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/flatpak-hidamari.webp\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-47411\" src=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/flatpak-hidamari-700x479.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"610\" height=\"417\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/flatpak-hidamari-700x479.webp 700w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/flatpak-hidamari-300x205.webp 300w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/flatpak-hidamari-768x526.webp 768w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/flatpak-hidamari.webp 818w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 610px) 100vw, 610px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>After installed the package, search for and launch the app either from start menu or GNOME overview depends on your desktop.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/launch-hidamari.webp\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-47413\" src=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/launch-hidamari.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"567\" height=\"278\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/launch-hidamari.webp 567w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/launch-hidamari-300x147.webp 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 567px) 100vw, 567px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>If the app icon not visible, try either log out and back in to apply variable change, or run command below to start from terminal:<\/p>\n<pre>flatpak run io.github.jeffshee.Hidamari<\/pre>\n<p>For the future releases of the software package, use command:<\/p>\n<pre>flatpak update io.github.jeffshee.Hidamari<\/pre>\n<p><b>At first launch of the app, it automatically creates a &#8220;Hidamari&#8221; sub-folder in user&#8217;s Video folder. By moving or copy&#8217;n&#8217;pasting your videos into that folder, the app will find and list them after refresh.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Then, you can choose and click Play a local video as animated wallpaper or use &#8220;I&#8217;m Feeling Lucky&#8221; button to play a random local video.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/hidamari-local-videos-1.webp\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-47415\" src=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/hidamari-local-videos-1-700x403.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"610\" height=\"351\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/hidamari-local-videos-1-700x403.webp 700w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/hidamari-local-videos-1-300x173.webp 300w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/hidamari-local-videos-1-768x442.webp 768w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/hidamari-local-videos-1-1320x760.webp 1320w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/hidamari-local-videos-1.webp 1345w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 610px) 100vw, 610px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><b>NOTE: For laptop, the video wallpaper may make your battery draining fast, though it WON&#8217;T prevent system from going blank screen or suspend when idle.<\/b><\/p>\n<h3>Stop video wallpaper playback:<\/h3>\n<p>Video wallpaper keeps working even after you closed the Hidamari app window, because it runs silently in the background. GNOME users can go &#8220;Settings -&gt; Apps&#8221; and configure to NOT allow running the app in background.<\/p>\n<p>For recent <b>GNOME<\/b> desktop, just go top-right &#8220;Quick Settings&#8221; (aka system status menu) menu, then click the &#8220;close&#8221; icon for the background app will stop the video playback.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/hidamari-background.webp\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-47416\" src=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/hidamari-background-211x300.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"211\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/hidamari-background-211x300.webp 211w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/hidamari-background-491x700.webp 491w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/hidamari-background.webp 504w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 211px) 100vw, 211px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>While other desktops can launch system monitor app, then find out and stop the &#8220;hidamari-player&#8221; and &#8216;hidamari-server&#8217; processes.<\/p>\n<h3>Uninstall Hidamari<\/h3>\n<p>To uninstall the video wallpaper app (it won&#8217;t remove your local videos), open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command:<\/p>\n<pre>flatpak uninstall --delete-data io.github.jeffshee.Hidamari<\/pre>\n<p>Also run <code>flatpak uninstall --unused<\/code> to clear useless run-time libraries.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This tutorial shows how to easily set your video playback as animated desktop wallpaper in Ubuntu and other Linux! I&#8217;ve written about how to do the job in Ubuntu using Komorebi and Gpu Video Wallpaper. However, both seems no longer being actively development. So here I&#8217;m going to introduce you Hidamari, a free open-source video [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47408,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1562],"class_list":["post-47407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-howtos","tag-animated-wallpaper"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}