Change wallpaper via ssh

Question

I have a server running 12.04 32bit.

I would like to change the wallpaper via an ssh connection.

I tried the following command, but it didn't change the wallpaper. The command works if I am on the server (physically sat down with a keyboard and monitor connected), but not via an ssh connection.

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri "file:///tmp/ozvsk.jpg"

Any ideas?

Solution

I think you can try the following:

ssh user@remotehost

Once you are logged in the remote host you need to export the "Display" so you can search it with this.

env | grep 'DISPLAY'

The result is:

DISPLAY=:0

Now you can export the DISPLAY.

export DISPLAY=:0

Then you can set the background.

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri "file:///tmp/ozvsk.jpg"

Cheers.

Comments

[ImaginaryRobots]

are you getting any particular error? What is the full ssh command that you are using?

[Sergey]

env | grep 'DISPLAY' is empty for me. When I export DISPLAY=:0 and execute gsettings ... nothing happens

[Roman Raguet]

if you want to do ssh on localhost, try this: ssh -X [email protected], then you can search the Display with env | grep 'DISPLAY' (eg: DISPLAY=localhost:10.0). Finally use the gsettings: gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri "file:///home/user/wallpaper.jpg". Hope this will be helpful.