#1 2025-10-05 09:16:56

MarkW

Member

Registered: 2024-11-03

Posts: 457

Ice, Ice Baby

IceWM has been back in development since 2022 and is currently on version 3.9.  I'm using it right now

Haven't worked out how to use the icewmbg yet.  If anyone can help with that.  Currently using pcmanfm --desktop (tried nitrogen, but it only sets the background for one desktop in this WM)

Last edited by MarkW (2025-10-05 09:18:57)

PackRat

jgmenu user Numero Uno

Registered: 2015-10-02

Posts: 2,870

Re: Ice, Ice Baby

icewmbg has a man page with all the details.

---

You must unlearn what you have learned.
    -- yoda

MarkW

Member

Registered: 2024-11-03

Posts: 457

Re: Ice, Ice Baby

I know.  It's not easy to follow and the sole example doesn't work

MarkW

Member

Registered: 2024-11-03

Posts: 457

Re: Ice, Ice Baby

How do I even get it to look at my wallpaper directory?

MarkW

Member

Registered: 2024-11-03

Posts: 457

Re: Ice, Ice Baby

I'm too stupid to make it work.  I need an example.

PackRat

jgmenu user Numero Uno

Registered: 2015-10-02

Posts: 2,870

Re: Ice, Ice Baby

This doesn't work?

icewmbg -f -p -i /full_path_to_image/image01.png

so something like:

icewmbg -f -p -i /home/MarkW/wallpaper/image01.png

Pretty sure it can run from the command line. I don't think it's restricted to the config file.

---

You must unlearn what you have learned.
    -- yoda

PackRat

jgmenu user Numero Uno

Registered: 2015-10-02

Posts: 2,870

Re: Ice, Ice Baby

I think the default configuration is located in /usr/share --> /usr/share/icewm/preferences

You can have a look at that.

---

You must unlearn what you have learned.
    -- yoda

MarkW

Member

Registered: 2024-11-03

Posts: 457

Re: Ice, Ice Baby

It worked when I changed the path and image-1.png to *.jpg

Can I have it select either jpg or png files?

PackRat

jgmenu user Numero Uno

Registered: 2015-10-02

Posts: 2,870

Re: Ice, Ice Baby

I think it handles jpg and png file formats so it should be doable.

Visit their home page and see if they have a wiki with config examples.

---

You must unlearn what you have learned.
    -- yoda

MarkW

Member

Registered: 2024-11-03

Posts: 457

Re: Ice, Ice Baby

I changed line 1481 in the preferences file to

DesktopBackgroundImage=home/mark/wallpapers/*.jpg

Still just a light grey background.  Should I have left the " " in?

PackRat

jgmenu user Numero Uno

Registered: 2015-10-02

Posts: 2,870

Re: Ice, Ice Baby

Does this line:

DesktopBackgroundImage=home/mark/wallpapers/*.jpg

actually randomly select a jpg image?

Looks like your making a call to an image that doesn't exist so icewm defaults to the gray background. Call an actual image and see if it gets set as wallpaper.

---

You must unlearn what you have learned.
    -- yoda

hhh

Gaucho

From: High in the Custerdome

Registered: 2015-09-17

Posts: 16,812

Website

Re: Ice, Ice Baby

I installed icewm from the trixie repo and ran into the same issue. I copied the icewm files to my config...

cp -r /usr/share/icewm/ ~/.config/icewm/

I created a file names 'startup' in that folder with the content...

#!/bin/sh

nm-applet &

... and made it executable. Logout/login and nm-applet appears in the tray, so that's working. Add 'icewmbg &' to startup, no joy. Replace it with the full 'icewmb -a 1 -i ~/Pictures/myImage.jpg', no joy. Added a half-second delay on that, it works...

#!/bin/sh

nm-applet &
(sleep .5) && icewmbg -a 1 -i ~/Pictures/wallpapers/rhino.jpg &

Messy.

-edit- Even a .1 delay works.

---

I don't care what you do at home. Would you care to explain?

MarkW

Member

Registered: 2024-11-03

Posts: 457

Re: Ice, Ice Baby

Cheers Tripleh

There is a random option in icewm preferences.  Not sure how it's supposed to work though

ShuffleBackgroundImages=1 # 0/1

hhh

Gaucho

From: High in the Custerdome

Registered: 2015-09-17

Posts: 16,812

Website

Re: Ice, Ice Baby

Cheers Tripleh

There is a random option in icewm preferences.  Not sure how it's supposed to work though

ShuffleBackgroundImages=1 # 0/1

Set it to 1 (true), set several images in your startup script, in quotes and surrounded by quotes...

(sleep .5) && icewmbg -a 1 -i "~/Pictures/wallpapers/rhino.jpg,~/Pictures/wallpapers/godzilla.jpg,~/Pictures/wallpapers/lizard.jpg" &

You'll get a random background from the list every login.

-edit- Uncomment CycleBackgroundsPeriod and the wallpapers will cycle (randomly, I think, it that boolean is also set), so 'CycleBackgroundsPeriod=600' is every ten minutes.

https://ice-wm.org/man/icewmbg.html

So icewmbg is working, just something is taking over its autostart (the theme, probably).

---

I don't care what you do at home. Would you care to explain?

hhh

Gaucho

From: High in the Custerdome

Registered: 2015-09-17

Posts: 16,812

Website

Re: Ice, Ice Baby

OK, so icewmbg is getting started properly by icewm-session, but I was right... go to the 'themes' folder in the icewm config folder and open your theme's 'default.theme' file in a text editor and comment out the bottom line that sets a wallpaper. Comment out your startup entry as well and setting image paths in your 'preferences' file now works.

-edit- Nice, per an example in the man page, just set the path to the image folder if you're using multiple images (remove the svg file from the wallpapers folder or it will break cycling the walls)...

#
# icewmbg preferences
#

#  Seconds between cycling over all background images, default zero is off.
CycleBackgroundsPeriod=600 # [0-2147483647]

#  Display desktop background centered and not tiled.
DesktopBackgroundCenter=0 # 0/1

#  Desktop background color(s), comma separated.
# DesktopBackgroundColor=""

#  Desktop background image(s), comma separated.
DesktopBackgroundImage="~/Pictures/wallpapers"

#  Paint the background image over all multihead monitors combined.
# DesktopBackgroundMultihead=0 # 0/1

#  Resize desktop background to full screen.
DesktopBackgroundScaled=1 # 0/1

#  Color(s) to announce for semitransparent windows.
# DesktopTransparencyColor=""

#  Image(s) to announce for semitransparent windows.
# DesktopTransparencyImage=""

#  Choose a random selection from the list of background images.
ShuffleBackgroundImages=1 # 0/1

#  Support for semitransparent terminals like Eterm or gnome-terminal.
# SupportSemitransparency=1 # 0/1

Last edited by hhh (2025-10-06 14:39:39)

---

I don't care what you do at home. Would you care to explain?

MarkW

Member

Registered: 2024-11-03

Posts: 457

Re: Ice, Ice Baby

The good news is that I don't have any svg files in my wallpapers folder.  The bad news is that I have over 100 themes installed, and there's no universal default theme file.  So now I have to go through each theme individually.

Which isn't very efficient,

MarkW

Member

Registered: 2024-11-03

Posts: 457

Re: Ice, Ice Baby

I changed the line

DesktopBackgroundImage="~/Pictures/wallpapers"

To your exact suggestion and now it works great.  I even have a different wallpaper for each desktop.

Other things I like: easy to get apps to autostart on a particular desktop and tiling can be done from the application menu

MarkW

Member

Registered: 2024-11-03

Posts: 457

Re: Ice, Ice Baby

Things that don't seem to work

Conky.   No idea why

Correction.  Some work. Some don't

Last edited by MarkW (2025-10-06 21:14:07)

hhh

Gaucho

From: High in the Custerdome

Registered: 2015-09-17

Posts: 16,812

Website

Re: Ice, Ice Baby

The good news is that I don't have any svg files in my wallpapers folder.  The bad news is that I have over 100 themes installed, and there's no universal default theme file.  So now I have to go through each theme individually.

The svg file was in my brand new BL Carbon test install, just be aware to put only jpg and png images in your wallpaper folder.

You're only using one theme at a time, so just edit the respective *.theme file when you switch to a new one.

---

I don't care what you do at home. Would you care to explain?

MarkW

Member

Registered: 2024-11-03

Posts: 457

Re: Ice, Ice Baby

Some of the themes have their own wallpaper.  I think that might have been the problem