Desktop Pictures don't rotate while screensaver is running

Have you tried this?

Go to System Preferences, Desktop and Screensaver.
Select Screensaver, then from the list of available screensavers, select Pictures -> Choose Folder.
Select the folder that contains your desktop pictures.
Click the "Show All" button to get back to the full set of System Preferences.
Go to Security -> General.
Check "Require password to wake this computer from sleep or screen saver".

I think the screensaver selects pictures in alpha-numberic order.
So if the files in the source folders are not the same, then that may explain why the pictures don't match.

G J Piper wrote:
Ok... so I've been waiting, watching, and searching for a transparent screensaver that could work in Leopard for nearly 3 years. Well, I finally found one! The screensaver is called MBS Transparent Screensaver. Finally I'd get to see my wonderful desktop pictures and watch my email while the screen is locked!

Well, after finally getting this functionality, I've been disappointed by the realization that the desktop pictures do not rotate automatically while a screensaver is running.

Is there any way to force the desktop pictures to rotate as they do when the screensaver is not running? Possibly an undocumented setting somewhere? Or, is there any UNIX command that can cause the desktop to refresh to the next image in the rotation?

the only way to achieve this would be pretty hacky. you'll have to switch off the picture rotation in desktop background preferences and make an apple script that changes the background picture to a random one in a folder of your choice. then make a launch daemon to run this apple script periodically. do you REALLY want to go through this? I can supply the details if you wish.

Any ideas or help would be appreciated.

ok, this took longer than I thought because it seems that scripting of desktop background is a bit buggy. anyway. paste the following into Script Editor and save it as a script somewhere.

<pre style="
font-family: Monaco, 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;
font-size: 10px;
margin: 0px;
padding: 5px;
border: 1px solid #000000;
width: 720px; height: 335px;
color: #000000;
background-color: #ADD8E6;
overflow: auto;"
title="this text can be pasted into the Script Editor">

delay 10
tell application "System Events"
--activate
-- SET DESKTOP TO SPECIFIC PICTURE
tell current desktop
--set picture rotation to 0
set curpic to picture

end tell

tell application "Finder"
set i to index of file curpic
set curfolder to container of file curpic
if i < (number of files in curfolder) then
set i to i + 1
else
set i to 1
end if
set newpic to item i of curfolder as alias



end tell
tell current desktop
set pictures folder to curfolder as alias
set picture rotation to 0
set picture to newpic
end tell
quit
end tell

</pre>

then download Lingon
http://sourceforge.net/projects/lingon/
and make a launch daemon that runs the following terminal command at an interval of your choice

osascript path/to/above/script

put the correct unix path in the above command.
save it and log out/in. the script will rotate the pictures consecutively at the period you specified in the launch daemon. you can change the folder with pictures as you normally would in desktop system preferences.

Message was edited by: V.K.

yes, a cron will be just fine. the "delay 10" line is from some troubleshooting. without it launchd barfs on login because it seems that the launch daemon (and hence the apple script) gets activated too early in the login sequence. at least that's what happened to me when i tested the script. so I put the delay there for safety. you can experiment with that delay and see if you can get rid of it at all.

Message was edited by: V.K.

with 2 monitors the script should be altered but in its current form it should work on the primary monitor. make sure your desktop background preferences are set NOT to rotate before you run the script.

here is what the script should be with multiple monitors

<pre style="
font-family: Monaco, 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;
font-size: 10px;
margin: 0px;
padding: 5px;
border: 1px solid #000000;
width: 720px; height: 335px;
color: #000000;
background-color: #ADD8E6;
overflow: auto;"
title="this text can be pasted into the Script Editor">


tell application "System Events"
--activate
repeat with j from 1 to number of desktops
delay 2
tell desktop j
--set picture rotation to 0
set curpic to picture

end tell

tell application "Finder"
set i to index of file curpic
set curfolder to container of file curpic
if i < (number of files in curfolder) then
set i to i + 1
else
set i to 1
end if
set newpic to item i of curfolder as alias



end tell
tell desktop j
set pictures folder to curfolder as alias
set picture rotation to 0
set picture to newpic
end tell


end repeat
quit
end tell
</pre>

Message was edited by: V.K.

the second script I posted above should work with any number of monitors. i tested it with two monitors and it works for me. please try it.