✦ LINUX WALLPAPER ENGINE GUI ✦

◈ A graphical user interface for managing wallpapers for [linux-wallpaperengine](https://github.com/Almamu/linux-wallpaperengine) ◈
◈ Powered by Go (Backend) and Electron (Frontend) ◈

CONTENTS

• CONTENTS
• SCREENSHOTS
• FEATURES
• MEMORY EFFICIENCY
• PREREQUISITES
• INSTALLATION
  • Arch Linux (AUR)
  • Nix Flakes
  • Other Distributions
• USAGE
  • [Options]
• BUILD FROM SOURCE
• DEVELOPMENT
• STONKS!

[!NOTE] This GUI is also compatible with my linux-wallpaperengine.

It's a C++ (with sokol) implementation of Wallpaper Engine for Linux. It's still in early development and missing some features. Maybe you want to check it out!

SCREENSHOTS

FEATURES

MEMORY EFFICIENCY

I know that many users are scared of Electron applications due to their reputation for being "RAM eaters". This GUI is specifically designed for maximum efficiency to address those concerns:

• Go Backend: A lightweight Go process handles the system tray, configuration, and wallpaper management.
• Electron Frontend: The Electron-based UI is only launched when needed. When you minimize the application to the tray, the Electron process is completely terminated, freeing up all the memory it was using.

PREREQUISITES

[!IMPORTANT] This application requires linux-wallpaperengine (Almamu) or linux-wallpaperengine (AzPepoze) (still missing some features) to be installed on your system to function.

INSTALLATION

[!IMPORTANT] Requires (fails without):

• linux-wallpaperengine (Almamu) or linux-wallpaperengine (AzPepoze) (still missing some features) — renders the wallpapers
• xrandr — detects connected screens (get-screens fails, no wallpaper applied)
• libayatana-appindicator3 (libayatana-appindicator3.so.1) — system tray support (backend won't start)

Optional (feature degraded if missing):

• xprop — fullscreen pause detection
• notify-send (libnotify) — desktop notifications
• killall (psmisc) — cleanup of stale engine processes
• zenity (GNOME/GTK) or kdialog (KDE) — prompting dialogs
• xdg-open (xdg-utils) — open config file in editor

Arch Linux (AUR)

Install using your favorite AUR helper:

# Using yay
yay -S linux-wallpaperengine-gui-git

# Using paru
paru -S linux-wallpaperengine-gui-git

Nix Flakes

If you use Nix, this repository provides a flake.nix with a development shell containing all the build requirements (go, bun, pkg-config, gtk3, libayatana-appindicator), plus golangci-lint for bun run check, so you don't need to install anything manually.

With Nix installed:

nix develop

This drops you into a shell with all the dependencies, continue with bun install, bun run build, or bun run dev as normal.

[!NOTE] bun run build:all currently fails on NixOS under the Nix devShell due to a known NixOS limitation with generic dynamically-linked binaries downloaded by electron-builder (see https://nix.dev/permalink/stub-ld). bun run build works fine.

With direnv installed:

direnv allow

This automatically loads the same shell whenever you cd into the project directory.

Thanks to @Maxxavec2x!

Other Distributions

Download the latest pre-built binaries (AppImage, deb, rpm) from the Releases page.

USAGE

Launch it from your application menu or via terminal:

linux-wallpaperengine-gui [options]

[Options]

BUILD FROM SOURCE

Requirements:

• Go (1.21+)
• bun
• GTK3 and libayatana-appindicator development headers, required to compile the systray integration:
  • Debian/Ubuntu: sudo apt install libgtk-3-dev libayatana-appindicator3-dev pkg-config
  • Other distros: install the packages providing gtk+-3.0 and ayatana-appindicator3-0.1 via pkg-config

1. Clone & Enter:

   git clone https://github.com/AzPepoze/linux-wallpaperengine-gui
   cd linux-wallpaperengine-gui
   

2. Install Deps:

   bun install
   

3. Build:

   bun run build
   

   The output will be in the dist directory.

DEVELOPMENT

Run with hot-reloading:

bun run dev

STONKS!