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I would like an animated background image. Or better, to make an application be the background, with no interactivity, so I don't accidentally click on it.

I've seen many discussions about setting images as background, but is there a way to set an arbitrary application as the background window?

I've found this Gifsice snippet on the Arch BBS: gifsicle --animate --new-window root someAnimatedGif.gif but it just opened a regular window (I'm using i3 with LightDM on Arch).

I've tried executing it when i3 starts (same result as running it from xterm) and putting it in .Xinitrc, which produced nothing.

How/where should I run gifview and is it possible to use another application, such as VLC, as the background window and why does gifview --new-window root not change the root?

ctrl-alt-delor
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Rain Gloom
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  • It may depend on Window-Manager, Desktop-system (Kde, gnome, fwm, etc). Kde, and some others, add a window above the root, but behind everything else. – ctrl-alt-delor Aug 05 '15 at 21:39
  • so the root window can be placed in front of other windows if the WM puts it there? this also doesn't really answer whether the root can be any window of any program – Rain Gloom Aug 06 '15 at 01:26
  • That is not what I Wrote. I said that some desktop-systems put a windows covering the root window. Therefore the root does not have to be the background. This is not the same as the root can be in front, the root is **always** behind all others. – ctrl-alt-delor Aug 06 '15 at 12:48
  • What is it that you are trying to do? Tell us without the jargon. Are you trying to write to the background, copy the background to somewhere else, or something else. – ctrl-alt-delor Aug 06 '15 at 12:50
  • I thought it can be in front because `gifview --new-window root` opened a normal window I'm trying to figure out if the root window can be replaced by any other window or can act as anything else besides a static background. – Rain Gloom Aug 07 '15 at 11:23
  • From gifview manual “Display the next GIF input in a new **child** of an existing X window.”. Therefore the new window is a child of root. – ctrl-alt-delor Aug 07 '15 at 13:54
  • I based it on [this](https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=73902) not sure what others did differently or if there was a change in Gifsicle since then, but many reported that it works. So it's not possible to replace the root window? – Rain Gloom Aug 08 '15 at 13:52
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    Based on your link I think you are trying to change the background image, possibly you are trying to have an animation as background. From also your question I think you are trying to make an application be the background, probably with no interactivity. – ctrl-alt-delor Aug 12 '15 at 13:53
  • That is correct. Changing the background to a static image works, but not the rest. – Rain Gloom Aug 13 '15 at 01:43
  • There's _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_DESKTOP (https://specifications.freedesktop.org/wm-spec/latest/ar01s05.html#idm139870830002400) but the WM has to support it – olejorgenb Oct 20 '17 at 08:18

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I use the following in ~/.config/i3/config:

exec /usr/bin/gifview  --animate -w root /path/to/image.gif
mofoe
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