otter-wallpaper

otter-wallpaper draws backgrounds on the Wayland background layer via zwlr_layer_shell_v1. Each image is decoded to an SHM buffer, then freed to keep memory use low.

Usage

otter-wallpaper

Autostart at login: see Session setup.

Configuration

Config file: ~/.config/otter-shell/otter-wallpaper.conf

path = /usr/share/wallpapers/pika/
rotation_interval = 300
rotation_order = random
scale_mode = cover
same_on_all_displays = true
overview_enabled = false
overview_blur_radius = 20

Key	Default	Description
`path`	`/usr/share/wallpapers/pika/`	File or directory
`rotation_interval`	`300`	Seconds between rotations (0 = disabled)
`rotation_order`	`random`	`sequential` or `random`
`scale_mode`	`cover`	`cover` (fill+crop) or `fit` (letterbox)
`same_on_all_displays`	`true`	Same image on all outputs
`overview_enabled`	`false`	Blurred overview surface for Niri
`overview_blur_radius`	`20`	Blur strength for overview

Per-display overrides use display_0_name, display_0_path, through display_7_*.

Lockscreen integration

On wallpaper change, otter-wallpaper writes the current path per output to:

$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/otter-shell/wallpaper-state

Format: one output_name=path line per output. otter-lock reads this file for the lock screen background. otter-theme-gen uses the same state to build wallpaper-reactive themes.

Niri overview

With overview_enabled = true, a blurred layer surface is created with namespace otter-wallpaper-overview. Add to your Niri config:

layer-rule {
    match namespace="^otter-wallpaper-overview$"
    place-within-backdrop true
}

Hot reload

Config and theme changes apply via inotify without restart. Reload keeps the current wallpaper.

Get Started

Desktop Shell

Core Apps

Productivity

Utilities

Configuration

Usage

Configuration

Lockscreen integration

Niri overview

Hot reload

​Usage

​Configuration

​Lockscreen integration

​Niri overview

​Hot reload

Usage

Configuration

Lockscreen integration

Niri overview

Hot reload