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Wallpapers

Wallpapers

sysc-greet supports two types of wallpapers: themed static images and custom wallpapers (including video backgrounds).

Themed Wallpapers (Static Images)

Location: /usr/share/sysc-greet/wallpapers/

Managed by: gSlapper (Wayland wallpaper daemon)

These auto-match your selected theme using the naming convention sysc-greet-{theme}.png.

Included Themed Wallpapers

  • sysc-greet-dracula.png
  • sysc-greet-gruvbox.png
  • sysc-greet-nord.png
  • sysc-greet-tokyo-night.png
  • sysc-greet-catppuccin.png
  • sysc-greet-material.png
  • sysc-greet-solarized.png
  • sysc-greet-monochrome.png
  • sysc-greet-eldritch.png
  • sysc-greet-transishardjob.png
  • sysc-greet-rama.png
  • sysc-greet-dark.png

Adding or Replacing Themed Wallpapers

# Replace an existing theme wallpaper
sudo cp ~/my-nord-bg.png /usr/share/sysc-greet/wallpapers/sysc-greet-nord.png
sudo chown greeter:greeter /usr/share/sysc-greet/wallpapers/sysc-greet-nord.png

# Add a wallpaper for a new theme
sudo cp ~/my-bg.png /usr/share/sysc-greet/wallpapers/sysc-greet-mytheme.png
sudo chown greeter:greeter /usr/share/sysc-greet/wallpapers/sysc-greet-mytheme.png

Generating Custom Themed Wallpapers

Use the included script to generate themed wallpapers from ASCII art:

cd sysc-greet/scripts

# Generate all theme wallpapers (uses scripts/ASCII.txt by default)
python3 generate-wallpapers.py

# Generate with custom ASCII art
python3 generate-wallpapers.py --ascii /path/to/my-ascii.txt

# Generate only a specific theme
python3 generate-wallpapers.py --theme dracula

# Specify output directory
python3 generate-wallpapers.py --output ~/my-wallpapers/

The script generates 4K (3840x2160) PNG images that scale down nicely to all displays.

Custom themes: The script automatically detects custom themes from /usr/share/sysc-greet/themes/ and ~/.config/sysc-greet/themes/ and generates matching wallpapers.

Install generated wallpapers:

sudo cp wallpapers/*.png /usr/share/sysc-greet/wallpapers/
sudo chown greeter:greeter /usr/share/sysc-greet/wallpapers/*.png

Custom Wallpapers (Videos & Images)

Location: /var/lib/greeter/Pictures/wallpapers/

Managed by: gSlapper (Video wallpaper manager)

Video wallpapers provide animated backgrounds with multi-monitor support.

Requirements

# Install gSlapper (if not already installed)
yay -S gslapper
# or build from source: https://github.com/Nomadcxx/gSlapper

Adding Custom Wallpapers

# Copy video to greeter's wallpaper directory
sudo cp ~/Videos/cool-animation.mp4 /var/lib/greeter/Pictures/wallpapers/

# Set correct ownership
sudo chown greeter:greeter /var/lib/greeter/Pictures/wallpapers/cool-animation.mp4

Supported Formats

Static Images: PNG, JPG, JPEG, WebP, GIF

Video: MP4, WebM, MKV, AVI, MOV

Accessing Wallpapers in Greeter

Press F1 (Settings) → Backgrounds → Select your wallpaper or video

Both static and video wallpapers will appear in the same menu.

Stop Video Wallpaper

From the wallpaper menu, select Stop Video Wallpaper to pause video playback. This uses gSlapper's IPC to pause without restarting the daemon.

Troubleshooting

Wallpaper not displaying:

# Check gSlapper is installed
which gslapper

# Verify gSlapper socket exists
ls -la /tmp/sysc-greet-wallpaper.sock

# Check compositor config
cat /etc/greetd/niri-greeter-config.kdl | grep gslapper

Multi-monitor issues:

gSlapper should display wallpapers on all monitors. If only one monitor shows the wallpaper, ensure you're using gSlapper v1.0.9+ which fixed the multi-monitor rendering bug.