I like real photos. Use several of my own.
In selecting pictures for desktop background you seem to need a particular sort of color and brightness and pattern detail… so it does not overwhelm the windows.
Does any have a theory about that?
John’s Background switcher can also use local photos from your hard drive. Here is the pulldown to add a new source. You can choose multiple sources.
There are also several layouts.
2 Likes
John’s background switcher looks fine. But Variety is standard in most repositories for Linux distros. And I can mix in my folder of local photos along with Variety’s many great sources. Windows and Mac stuff isn’t very useful.
3 Likes
I have not had time to research this, but as I have a widescreen monitor, I have a lot of issues in using my own self-made wallpapers to display correctly. The text is always cut off no matter which method I choose. I either get black bars on the side, distorted image (in stretched mode), etc.
Will have to check out using something other than Linux Mint’s desktop wallpaper manager.
Thanks,
Sheila
3 Likes
You can install Variety and check it out in about three minutes, then dump it if you don’t like it. Synaptic Package Manager is the fastest way.
2 Likes
My small mini acer running Redcore Linux with Plasma DE It is also running Gentoo Linux with a Mate DE
3 Likes
I dual-boot Garuda Linux with Windows 11 on my primary laptop PC, using rEFInd boot manager to choose which OS I want to boot when I start or restart the computer. I’ve customized my rEFInd screen:
and my Login screen too:
Now, here’s my desktop:
I hope you like it 
Ernie
6 Likes
Hi Ernie,
I like the forest.
Garuda at 4.19am… you are a keen Linux user.
Cheers
Neville
2 Likes
Thank you! I’m glad you like my screens
Ernie
3 Likes
Hi, @ernie
Love the desktop! I have been using Garuda on two laptops and love it. One of the hilarious things the devs must have done:
Input wrong password in terminal–response is, “He has fallen in the water!” and several other funny responses for “WRONG!”
I have never used Arch before, and must admit there is a steep learning curve from Linux Mint, etc. But until I have time to delve into doing things myself, I am using the GUI (love Octupi) and even search on AUR for needed package and somehow muddle through the list of questions 
to get them installed. It took a while to get the answers correct. But since I am new to it, even watching the output for updates is fascinating.
Sheila
2 Likes
I’m glad you’re working to learn Garuda! I think it’s a great take on Arch. If you run into any problems, or need any help, just reply to this post with your questions, and I’ll try to help. One thing you can do from the command line that I like is update the system with the ‘upd’ command. It’s a Garuda customization. It gets your password, synchronizes all the repos, then checks for updatable packages. If it finds any, it asks if you want to perform the update. If you respond with a ‘y’, it does the rest for you. All those Garuda apps you see in the System category are script wrappers, for the most part. The upd command’s the only one I’ve figured out so far, mostly because it’s the only one that’s useful to me. At some point, I may try to figure out some of the other ones.
Ernie
3 Likes
I just saw this thread and know it’s old but seems active. Here’s mine:
My laptop with Hyrpland
EDIT: blurred my IP
2 Likes
Yes, a background needs to be dark and subdued colours.
You should mention that Hyrpland is a Wayland compositor
1 Like
Yes, it’s Wayland compositor. I used these dot files for my Hyprland, Waybar and the background picture. GitHub - 1amSimp1e/dots: Nothing here but Dotfiles & Customization 💫
The scripts are slightly modified (power menu commands for OpenRC are changed) and I’ve added some functionality. The clock is tty-clock.
1 Like
Thanks, not many of us are familiar with Wayland.
You might consider doing a topic?
Someting like 'How to get started with Wayland ’ would help lots of people.
1 Like
Well, I don’t know how to do it on Ubuntu/Fedora kind of OSes because when I had Kubuntu it had Xorg/Plasma. My Gentoo systems now have Hyprland and I just read from wiki.gentoo.org how to install Hyprland: https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Hyprland and then of course the main tutorial from Hyrpland.org: Master tutorial – Hyprland Wiki
Also needed to add USE=“wayland” to the /etc/portage/make.conf which is Gentoo only thing.
1 Like
That is fine. You have given us a few pointers.
That might be something I can try on Gentoo.
People will follow the links, even if not Gentoo users
Thanks.
At least the official Hyprland tutorial is a great starting point (the second link on my previous post). It gives instructions for Arch, Debian, Fedora and many more. Arch and Nix are officially supported.
Great, people will follow that.
1 Like
gtk+ and mesa have to be compiled with the “wayland” use flag set in
/etc/portage/package.use/package.use just to get the “mate de” working. This is a local use flag, so be careful setting it in /etc/portage/make.conf, but as time goes by, I am sure it will turn into a world use flag.
1 Like