The approach described in the post earlier this week works well on single-head systems, but not when there are several monitors. Compiz handles these differently than XFCE4 or Gnome, causing some revision in the script.
Since Compiz treats the combined monitors as a single workspace, it is not actually possible to show separate images on the separate monitor backgrounds. There is a workaround, however: Use ImageMagic montage to manufacture a large image and then let compiz display that. I wanted the script to be flexible, so the -w argument now has 4 roles.
If -w -2, then all workspace backgrounds will be reset with randomly drawn images from one directory
If -w -1, then all workspaces are set to the same background
If -w n, for any "n'th" workspace, then that workspace will be replaced
If -w n > existing number of compiz wallpapers, then the new image will be added for the n+1'th workspace.
The -p argument determines whether we are setting for one page (one monitor) or two pages (2 monitors).
WIthout further adieu, here's the script that works. I never wrote anything in Python before, so take mercy
#!/usr/bin/env python3 ## Paul E. Johnson## 20150102 ## A script to randomly reassign compiz background images for viewports. ## Recall compiz after 0.9.2 uses "viewports" to simulate workspaces. ## Will choose an image file randomly from within dir hierarchy. ## Can replace one viewport's wallpaper. The w argument will be ## interpreted in one of 3 ways ## ## 1. If w is either 0 or -1, this means remove all ## existing wallpapers and replace with one randomly chosen image. ## ## 2. If w is -2, then all workspace backgrounds will be replaced ## with different images from same directory ## ## 3. If 1 < = w <= N (where there are N wallpaper images already ## defined), then the image on viewport w will be replaced. All of the ## other images will remain the same. ## ## 4. If N < w, we interpret this as a request to expand the ## wallpaper array by one. ## ## I thought it was a little interesting to make types 1 and 3 ## work together with compiz. To change the number of wallpapers, ## it is required to correctly change these variables in the ## wallpaper plugin as well: ## "bg-fill-type" ## "bg-image-pos" ## "bg-color1", ## "bg-color2", s ## I had previously been doing this by dbus-send, but compiz's ## interaction with dbus has become less and less stable, so this version ## uses "gsettings". ## About the schema argument: ## Because I do not use Unity as my desktop environment, I have to point ## SCHEMA at the location where compiz stores wallpapers. If you get ## compiz working with XFCE4, for example, make sure you use the Gsettings ## backend and DO allow Compiz to interact with the desktop environment in ## advanced settings. ## If you are using Unity, you probably need to change the path, removing ## "Default" with "unity". You can do from command line or by editing script. ## If you want to know how to get Compiz going without the Unity Desktop, ## this is not a bad set of advice ## http://www.webupd8.org/2012/11/how-to-set-up-compiz-in-xubuntu-1210-or.html ## If you have Unity installed, it is necessary to remove it, or else ## launching compiz with the Gsettings back end gets Ubuntu all confused and ## Unity keeps starting at same time. If you have trouble with that, I can help import argparse import subprocess import sys import os import random parser = argparse.ArgumentParser() parser.add_argument("-d", "--dir", help = "directory path", default = "/usr/local/share/Backgrounds") parser.add_argument("-p", "--pages", help = "pages", default = "1", type = int) parser.add_argument("-w", "--workspace", help = "workspace number, -1, 0, 1-n, or > n", default = "0", type = int) parser.add_argument("-schema", help = "gsettings shema", metavar = "SCHEMA", default = "org.compiz.wallpaper:/org/compiz/profiles/Default/plugins/wallpaper/") parser.add_argument("-key", help = "gsettings key", metavar = "KEY", default = "bg-image") args = parser.parse_args() array = eval(subprocess.check_output(["gsettings", "get", args.schema, args.key])) ## print(array) arraylen = len(array) ## python arrays index 0, ... , N-1, so downshift workspace number ws = args.workspace - 1 def getFn( pages, mydir, myws ): if pages > 1: dirlist = [os.path.join(dp, f) for dp, dn, fn in os.walk(os.path.expanduser(mydir)) for f in dn] if (len(dirlist) > 0): filelist = [os.path.join(dp, f) for dp, dn, fn in os.walk(os.path.expanduser(random.choice(dirlist))) for f in fn] else: filelist = [os.path.join(dp, f) for dp, dn, fn in os.walk(os.path.expanduser(mydir)) for f in fn] print(filelist) filename1 = random.choice(filelist) filename2 = random.choice(filelist) newfn = '/tmp/dual-%d.jpg' % myws if (os.path.isfile(newfn)) == True: os.remove(newfn) newfn = '/tmp/dual-%d.%s.jpg' % (myws, "2") subprocess.call(["montage", filename1, filename2, "-tile", "2x1", "-geometry", "1600x1200+0+0", "-background", "black", newfn]) filename = newfn else: filename = random.choice([os.path.join(dp, f) for dp, dn, fn in os.walk(os.path.expanduser(mydir)) for f in fn]) print("The newly found filename is:") print(filename) return filename ## print("Array length was") ## print(arraylen) ## If ws 0 or smaller, we are going to reset whole collection back to ## just one image. if ws > N of images, then add a new image. if ws == -3: for num in range(len(array)): array[num] = getFn(args.pages, args.dir, num) subprocess.call(["gsettings", "set", args.schema, args.key, str(array)]) elif ws < 0: filename = getFn(args.pages, args.dir, 1) array=[str(filename)] subprocess.call(["gsettings", "set", args.schema, args.key, str(array)]) subprocess.call(["gsettings", "set", args.schema, "bg-fill-type", str("[0]")]) subprocess.call(["gsettings", "set", args.schema, "bg-image-pos", str("[0]")]) subprocess.call(["gsettings", "set", args.schema, "bg-color1", str("['#000000ff']")]) subprocess.call(["gsettings", "set", args.schema, "bg-color2", str("['#000000ff']")]) elif ws < arraylen: filename = getFn(args.pages, args.dir, ws) array[ws]=str(filename) subprocess.call(["gsettings", "set", args.schema, args.key, str(array)]) else: filename = getFn(args.pages, args.dir, len(array)) array.append(str(filename)) subprocess.call(["gsettings", "set", args.schema, args.key, str(array)]) arraylen = len(array) subprocess.call(["gsettings", "set", args.schema, "bg-fill-type", str([0]*arraylen)]) subprocess.call(["gsettings", "set", args.schema, "bg-image-pos", str([0]*arraylen)]) subprocess.call(["gsettings", "set", args.schema, "bg-color1", str(['#000000ff']*arraylen)]) subprocess.call(["gsettings", "set", args.schema, "bg-color2", str(['#000000ff']*arraylen)]) subprocess.call(["gsettings", "set", args.schema, args.key, str(array)]) print("HELLO, corrected image array is:") print('\n '.join(array))
Now, if you don't want to use Compiz, but instead any other XFCE4 compatible window manager, such as OpenBox, then you can use XFdesktop to draw separate backgrounds on the monitors. I've done that too.
