A desktop wallpaper carousel for Linux & Windows desktops. Schedule your favorite wallpapers with ease and work with enjoyment (almost) regardless of your desktop manager.
*Go Carousel is a free application to make your Linux desktop more enjoyable. However, neither this nor derivative works can be used for commercial purposes.
If you are like me, you spend a lot of time working at the computer. A single desktop wallpaper is boring. This makes it fun by letting you define categories, and carousels of categories. With a simple command-line interface (CLI) you can change it to your hearts contempt (almost) regardless of the Linux window manager you use.
Supported Window Managers:
- Gnome (43..48)
- Cinnamon
- XFCE v4
- LXDE
- Micro$oft Windows
You can automate it further by:
- Defining a series of CRON jobs that would change your wallpaper accordingly
- Run it as a task
Back in 2024 I wrote a shell script to switch the desktop wallpaper on my Raspberry Pi 2 running the LXDE desktop manager. I could do it via the CLI or via a desktop shortcut.
I moved to my old laptop where I used Debian 12 (Bookworm). Around
May 2024 I wrote a rudimentary Bash shell script to do the same
I could do on my Pi. Little by little I added more features like
a rudimentary authorization, locking, categories and notifications
using notify-send.
On August 2025 I upgraded my old laptop to *Debian 13 (Trixie) to take advantage of Gnome 48. I decided to overhaul my old Bash shell script into a full-blown Go application. I prefer compiled languages to scripts and interpreted languages.
And so, the tool is now written in pure Go (v1.24.1 or better). I changed the old configuration file for a JSON file that would allow me to add the extra features the Go version now sports.
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- A simple CLI interface
- A single, portable JSON configuration file (
~/.config/coralys/goCarousel.json) - Supports multiple window managers: Gnome, Cinnamon, LXDE, XFCE & Windows.
- Desktop notifications (ensure your server is properly configured)
- The notion of files (wallpaper), categories and carousels (collection of categories)
- You can select a specific wallpaper file
- You can let it pick a random wallpaper from a selected category
- You can let it pick a random wallpaper from a random category from a chosen carousel
- You can have private categories that are autorized by the presence of a H/W key
- Can run as an angel (not quite a daemon) so that it uses the built-in scheduler instead of depending on CRON.
- Notifications are now more universal (DBus, LibNotify, etc.)
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Most desktops nowadays have a directory called Pictures and all Linux desktops seem
to have adopted that Windows thing as well. I put all my desktop wallpapers in a
subdirectory Pictures/Wallpapers or at least general wallpapers.
Then under that directory I create multiple directories, one for each category. For example:
· ~/Pictures
· Wallpapers
· Aviation
· Nature
· Anime
· Writing
· Misc
· Personal
So, you see this setup has several categories: Aviation, Anime, Misc, Nature, Writing
and Personal. That's how I classify my wallpapers, by category so that its is easy
to pick them depending on the mood or time of day. In each category you can put a
small (hidden) icon file .category_icon.png of size 100x100 which is used by the
Notification system when a wallpaper from that category is chosen.
For the sake of an example, I have a Personal category that is protected by a hardware
key. If that category is in a carousel and it picks a file from there, it will only be
set as wallpaper if the authorization is successful (I use a simple scheme just for fun).
Go Carousel is written in pure GO (v1.24.3).
go install github.com/lordofscripts/go-carousel@latest
Then let it create the default configuration file that you will need to edit to define your own Categories & Carousels and optionally your Protection Keys.
goCarousel -init
The configuration file is in ~/.config/coralys/goCarousel.json on
Linux and MacOS and in C:\Users\YOUR_NAME\AppData\Roaming\coralys\goCarousel.json
for Windows environments.
Note that you need a valid configuration file for this application to do its job. It is not sufficient to have the directory structure in place.
goCarousel --help gets you all you need to know to make advantage of it.
goCarousel -init creates a default configuration file. You must edit it to
goCarousel -ident tells you which Desktop Manager it has detected. If it is
one of the supported managers, you are good to go, else expect errors.
goCarousel -lock locks the application so that further calls do NOT change
the current wallpaper. This is good if you want to ensure scheduler entries
do not change the wallpaper in blackout periods.
goCarousel -unlock reverts what -lock does. After this goCarousel will
be able to change wallpapers again.
goCarousel -status gives the the current lock status.
The following commands should be successful provided there is no Lock.
goCarousel -F PATH-TO-FILE changes the wallpaper to the specifc file.
NOTE that if it is in a protected category, it will by-pass authorization
because it assumes that is what you wish.
goCarousel -C CATEGORY picks a random file from the selected Category
provided that category is defined in the configuration file. A category
may have an icon for use in notifications. By default categories are not
protected (do not require authorization). If you want the category to be
protected (like the Personal category above), you must specify that in
the configuration file.
goCarousel -G GROUP selects that Group/Carousel and selects a random
category from that group. A group contains one or more Categories, all of
them defined in the configuration file. Then from the selected category,
it picks a random wallpaper. You can define multiple Carousels therein.
goCarousel -any picks a random wallpaper from the general directory
defined in the configuration file.
goCarousel -default reverts to the default wallpaper defined in the
configuration file. In my window manager (X11 or Wayland) I defined a
shortcut so that when I press the Pause key on my keyboard, it invokes
this command.
The application has its own scheduler.
goCarousel -verify goes through the scheduler entries in the configuraition
file and tells you which ones are correct. It checks they fulfill the
standard CRON job notation.
goCarousel -task examines the schedules defined in the configuration file,
and checks if any of those are due (just like CRON does). If anything is
due, it performs the desired action:
{
"title": "Fun Time",
"action": "ActChosenCarousel",
"argument": "Private",
"cron_tab": "*/10 13-14 * * 1-5"
},
This Scheduled task is named Fun Time and is considered due every
10 minutes between 13-14 hours (1 PM to 2 PM) from Monday through
Friday. When due it sets the wallpaper (conditioned by the authorization)
to one from the Private carousel.
Together with -task you can use the -next option which will enumerate
each of the registered tasks and when would be the next time they would run.
The following are valid Task actions. All tasks need a Task schedule (CRON notation):
ActChosenCarousel(carousel name as argument) Pick from CarouselActDefaultWallpaper(no argument) Pick default wallpaperActLockCarousel(no argument) Locks carouselActUnlockCarousel(no argument) Unocks carouselActChosenCategory(category name as argument) Pick from chosen CategoryActChosenFile(wallpaper file as argument) Pick that specific wallpaper.
goCarousel -daemon MINUTES A great option to run the carousel if you just want to
let it do its thing without needing user CRON entries. Provided you have
entered scheduling information in the schedules section of the JSON
configuration file, the application will run in daemon mode.
While in daemon mode, it will not return until the specified amount of
Minutes have elapsed. During that time, it will perform any task from
the schedules section as they become due. Note that the configuration
file has options for the daemon in the angel section. There you can
specify the Actions that will be done upon entering and exit that mode.
The configuration file is formatted as JSON in the ~/.config/coralys/goCarousel.json
file.
If you read this document properly, you should know you can generate a sample version similar to this.
If you will be running goCarousel from as a CRON job, then a bunch of information
will not be available to the process. The application will have to dig the information
by querying processes (not yet implemented). As a last resort, it will use the
assume_session option in the options section of the configuration file. This
value must be one of: gnome, xfce4, lxde, cinnamon.
If you want desktop notifications every time the wallpaper is changed, then enable
them by setting notify to true in the options section of the configuration
file. Please ensure that your system has a properly setup notifications system.
"Anime": {
"protected": true,
"key_name": "MMC_Card",
"directory": "/home/lordofscripts/Pictures/Wallpapers/Anime"
}
Protected Categories are used when you have wallpapers that may not look
very professional in your environment. For example Anime on the workplace, etc.
For that, you set the protected attribute to true in the corresponding
category and you must also set the key_name attribute of that same category.
The value of the key name must be one of those listed as JSON key in the
key_devices section of the configuration file.
"key_devices": {
"MMC_Card": "058f:6335 E0FD-1813 5844bef71c16299cc5d73334153544be",
"USB-Maxell": "058f:6387 MAXELL_RED 5844bef71c16299cc5d73334153544be"
}
The matching key has a value with three fields separated by a space.
The 1st is a vendorId:productId pair, every USB or MMC card has it.
The 2nd is the device's volume label and the 3rd is an MD5 sum/hash
of a file named goCarousel.png found on the root directory of that
device. For that goCarousel must find the mounting point. But in
general this simple scheme works well and does not need to be cryptographically
secure.
Do you need the MD5 file hash of your chosen object? It is easy without installing anything that isn't already on your computer:
On Windows use PowerShell: Get-FileHash E:\goCarousel.png -Algorithm MD5
On Linux use any terminal window and type: md5sum /path/to/goCarousel.png
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