Bing Wallpaper for Mac and Ubuntu

Information

A script which downloads the latest picture of the day from Bing.com and saves it to a directory.

The script was tested on:

• Mac OS X 10.8 - 10.12
• Ubuntu 12.04 - 16.04
• Arch 2022.01.01

How to use?

• Just run the bing-wallpaper.sh script from the terminal. The script will download today's bing image.
• To see available options run the sript with the --help flag:

$ ./bing-wallpaper.sh --help
Usage:
  bing-wallpaper.sh [options]
  bing-wallpaper.sh -h | --help
  bing-wallpaper.sh --version

Options:
  -f --force                     Force download of picture. This will overwrite
                                 the picture if the filename already exists.
  -s --ssl                       Communicate with bing.com over SSL.
  -b --boost <n>                 Use boost mode. Try to fetch latest <n> pictures.
  -q --quiet                     Do not display log messages.
  -n --filename <file name>      The name of the downloaded picture. Defaults to
                                 the upstream name.
  -p --picturedir <picture dir>  The full path to the picture download dir.
                                 Will be created if it does not exist.
                                 [default: $HOME/Pictures/bing-wallpapers/]
  -r --resolution <resolution>   The resolution of the image to retrieve.
                                 Supported resolutions:
                                 UHD 1920x1200 1920x1080 800x480 400x240
  -w --set-wallpaper             Set downloaded picture as wallpaper (Only mac support for now).
  -h --help                      Show this screen.
  --version                      Show version.

Configuration on Mac

• Open Mac's System Preferences -> Desktop & Screensaver, add the wallpaper directory, and configure to taste.

• To have the script run everyday automatically you will need to setup launchd. I have provided a sample plist file, found in the Tools directory, which can be copied to $HOME/Library/LaunchAgents and loaded with the command launchctl load $HOME/Library/LaunchAgents/com.ideasftw.bing-wallpaper.plist. Modify the plist as needed to point to bing-wallpaper.sh.

Configuration on Ubuntu

TL;DR:

• To install Gnome background slideshow, in the terminal run:

$ git clone git@github.com:thejandroman/bing-wallpaper.git
$ bing-wallpaper/Tools/gnome-bing-slideshow/deploy-gnome-settings.sh

• Register bing-wallpaper/bing-random-pic.sh to run regularly.

• Change the background properties to use the new slideshow.

How to register bing-wallpaper.sh or bing-random-pic.sh to run regularly.

There are two ways to run the scipts regularly: cron jobs and startup applications.

• Cron jobs:
  • Change the path of bing-wallpaper.sh in Tools/bing-cron to the desired script location. If left unchanged the default value is ~/Pictures/bing-wallpaper.sh.
  • From the terminal run crontab /path/to/bing-cron to setup the cronjob.
• Startup programs:
  • From HUD, search for startup applications.
  • Add bing-random-pic.sh or bing-wallpaper.sh.