Wallpaper Not-Engine Linux

A lightweight wallpaper application for Linux that supports both X11 and Wayland with video wallpapers, audio detection, and multi-monitor setups. Made as an add-on for my GUI project. An old and bad attempt at this project is stored here.

P.S(25.07.04) Added script to convert videos to h.264 since some videos can use old unsupported codec like mpeg4 part 2, script intaractive, needs to be placed where video stored and that it.

Features

• GPU acceleration + support for many video cards for decoding due to built-in MPV support
• Support for audio output + its control via flags
• Enough options for customization
• Tested on AMD rx6800xt video card on KDE Wayland
• Tested on 4k images and 4k video

IMPORTANT

• Tests on x11 were not conducted, please, if you encounter any problems - open the issue and paste the log
• Tests on a multi-monitor setup were not conducted
• Be careful what videos you launch, some videos may have a codec whose HW decoding by your video card does not support, which can lead to a load on your CPU and not the GPU. Many 4k videos downloaded from YouTube may have AV1. If you have a card older than the RX 6xxx series or the RTX 30xx series, you will need to convert the video to a supported format (ffmpeg is the easiest and fastest option) (don't repeat my mistake, don't decode to H.264 10-bit, which may also be impossible to decode on your video card; make sure that the conversion is done to the 8-bit version).

Supported Media Formats

Any format supported by MPV, including:

• MP4, AVI, MKV (video files)
• GIF (animated images)
• PNG, JPG (audio files)
• And many more...

Prerequisites

Required Dependencies

• MPV: Media playback library
• OpenGL/EGL: For rendering
• PulseAudio: Audio detection functionality
• Wayland development libraries (for Wayland support)
• X11 development libraries (for X11 support)

Build Dependencies

Fedora / RHEL / CentOS

# Install development tools
sudo dnf groupinstall "Development Tools"
sudo dnf install cmake gcc-c++

# Install runtime dependencies
sudo dnf install mpv-devel mesa-libGL-devel mesa-libEGL-devel \
                 wayland-devel wayland-protocols-devel \
                 libX11-devel libXrandr-devel pulseaudio-libs-devel

Ubuntu / Debian

# Install development tools
sudo apt install build-essential cmake

# Install runtime dependencies
sudo apt install libmpv-dev libgl1-mesa-dev libegl1-mesa-dev \
                 libwayland-dev wayland-protocols \
                 libx11-dev libxrandr-dev libpulse-dev

Arch Linux

# Install development tools
sudo pacman -S base-devel cmake

# Install runtime dependencies
sudo pacman -S mpv mesa wayland wayland-protocols \
               libx11 libxrandr libpulse

Building

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/wallpaper_not-engine_linux.git
cd wallpaper_not-engine_linux
mkdir build && cd build
cmake ..
make -j$(nproc)

Usage

Basic Usage

# Set a video wallpaper
./wallpaper_ne_linux /path/to/video.mp4

# Force specific backend
./wallpaper_ne_linux --force-wayland /path/to/video.mp4
./wallpaper_ne_linux --force-x11 /path/to/video.mp4

# Set wallpaper on specific output
./wallpaper_ne_linux --output DP-1 /path/to/video.mp4

# Advanced usage with multiple options
./wallpaper_ne_linux --fps 60 --scaling stretch --volume 0.8 /path/to/video.mp4

# Silent mode with no auto-mute
./wallpaper_ne_linux --silent --noautomute /path/to/video.mp4

# Using GUI compatibility flags
./wallpaper_ne_linux -b /path/to/video.mp4 -r DP-1 --silent

Command Line Options

• -h, --help - Show help message
• -o, --output OUTPUT - Set wallpaper on specific output (can be used multiple times)
• -r, --screen-root OUTPUT - Alias for --output (for GUI compatibility)
• -b, --bg PATH - Alias for media path (for GUI compatibility)
• -f, --fps FPS - Set target FPS (default: 30)
• -s, --silent - Mute audio
• -v, --verbose - Enable verbose output
• --noautomute - Don't automatically mute audio when other apps play sound
• --scaling MODE - Scaling mode: stretch, fit, fill, default (default: fit)
• --no-loop - Don't loop the video
• --no-hardware-decode - Disable hardware decoding
• --volume VOLUME - Set audio volume (0.0-1.0 or 0-100, default: 0.5)
• --mpv-options OPTIONS - Additional MPV options
• --force-x11 - Force X11 backend
• --force-wayland - Force Wayland backend
• --log-level LEVEL - Set log level (debug, info, warn, error)

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit pull requests or open issues.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details. TL;DR: Do what you want.

Troubleshooting

Common Build Issues

Missing Dependencies

# Check for missing development packages
# On Fedora/RHEL/CentOS:
sudo dnf install wayland-scanner

# On Ubuntu/Debian:
sudo apt install wayland-scanner++

Runtime Issues

Application Won't Start

# Check dependencies
ldd build/wallpaper_ne_linux

# Run with verbose output
wallpaper_ne_linux --verbose /path/to/media.mp4

Display Backend Issues

# Force specific backend if auto-detection fails
wallpaper_ne_linux --force-x11 /path/to/media.mp4
# or
wallpaper_ne_linux --force-wayland /path/to/media.mp4

TODO

• Optimize CPU consumption
• Add cool features

Plans:

• Add rendering of different widgets to the wallpaper surface with customization via json (aka web wallpapers from Wallpaper Engine)
• Make my own version of the scene engine
• Fully introduce fallback to the CPU and try to optimize it enough so that it does not stutter when playing 4k video