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<img src="data/icons/io.github.dibbayajyotiroy.Fresco.svg" width="96" alt="Fresco icon" />
Fresco — Live Wallpapers for Linux, Made Easy
Set any video, GIF, or image as your desktop wallpaper on Debian, Ubuntu, Pop!_OS & Mint — a simple, GUI alternative to Wallpaper Engine and Lively for Linux, with hardware-accelerated playback.
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Windows has Wallpaper Engine. macOS has Lively. Linux had nothing simple — until Fresco. Pick a video, click Set, close the app. Your wallpaper keeps playing and comes back on login.
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Why Fresco?
Every other Linux live-wallpaper option is terminal-only, abandoned, locked to one GNOME version, or breaks under the compositor. Fresco is a proper desktop app: install a .deb, open it from your app menu, pick media, done.
- 🎬 Any media — looping video (mp4/webm/mkv), animated GIF, static image, image slideshow, or a multi-video playlist
- ⚡ Hardware-accelerated — GPU video decode (VA-API / NVDEC) keeps CPU near zero without degrading quality
- ✂️ Drag-to-crop editor — frame exactly the region you want (no other Linux tool has this)
- 🖼 Wallpaper library — saved thumbnails, recently-used, and search
- 🔁 Set & forget — close the app, the wallpaper keeps playing; restored automatically on login
- ⏸ Battery-aware — pause on battery, pause/resume any time
- 🖥 Multi-monitor — a different wallpaper per display
Fresco vs other Linux options
| Fresco | Hidamari | Komorebi | mpvpaper | Wallpaper Engine | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GUI app (no terminal) | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Works on GNOME/X11 | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ (Wayland-only) | ❌ (needs compositor off) |
| Video quality (mpv hwdec) | ✅ | ⚠️ VLC | ⚠️ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Drag-to-crop | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Playlists | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | manual | ✅ |
| Wallpaper library | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Actively maintained | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Free & open source | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ (paid, Windows) |
Supported distributions
| Distro | Versions | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Pop!_OS | 22.04 | ✅ Primary target |
| Ubuntu | 22.04, 24.04 | ✅ |
| Linux Mint | 21, 22 | ✅ |
| Debian | 12 (Bookworm) | ✅ |
| elementary OS | 7 | ✅ |
Wayland support: live wallpapers on layer-shell compositors (COSMIC, Hyprland, Sway, KDE Plasma 6) via bundled mpvpaper. GNOME Wayland shows a static frame fallback.Install
One-liner:
curl -fsSL https://github.com/DibbayajyotiRoy/fresco/releases/latest/download/install.sh | bashOr download the `.deb` from Releases and double-click it (or sudo apt install ./fresco_*.deb).
For the lowest CPU usage, install your GPU's hardware-decode driver:
sudo apt install intel-media-va-driver # Intel
sudo apt install mesa-va-drivers # AMD / Mesa
# NVIDIA: the proprietary driver provides NVDECUsage
Launch Fresco from your app menu → + Add → pick a video → drag a crop frame → Set as Wallpaper → close the window. That's it. Run frescod --check any time for hardware-decode diagnostics.
FAQ
Is there a Wallpaper Engine for Linux? Yes — Fresco is a free, open-source live-wallpaper app for Linux that works like Wallpaper Engine: pick a video, set it as your animated desktop background.
How do I set a video as my wallpaper on Ubuntu / Pop!_OS / Debian? Install the Fresco .deb, open it, click + Add, choose your video, and click Set as Wallpaper.
Does it work on Wayland or GNOME? It runs on GNOME and any X11 session today (Pop!_OS, Ubuntu, Mint, Debian). On Wayland layer-shell compositors (COSMIC, Hyprland, Sway, KDE Plasma 6) live wallpapers work via the bundled mpvpaper backend. GNOME Wayland shows a static-frame fallback because Mutter does not expose a live wallpaper surface.
Will a video wallpaper drain my battery or CPU? Fresco uses GPU hardware decoding so CPU stays near zero, and it can automatically pause on battery.
What video formats are supported? mp4, webm, mkv, avi, mov, plus animated GIFs, static images (jpg/png/webp), folders as slideshows, and multi-video playlists.
How it works
Two binaries: fresco (the GTK4/libadwaita GUI you can close) and frescod (a lightweight daemon).
- X11:
frescodpaints a desktop-level X11 window with an embedded mpv instance per monitor. - Wayland (layer-shell):
frescodsupervises the bundled mpvpaper process and steers it over mpv's IPC socket. - GNOME Wayland: a static frame is set as the desktop background (Mutter has no live wallpaper surface).
See docs/AUDIT.md for the full design and competitive analysis, and docs/FLATHUB.md for Flatpak packaging.
Building from source
sudo apt install libgtk-4-dev libadwaita-1-dev ffmpegthumbnailer libmpv-dev
cargo build --release
# On Wayland, also build the bundled mpvpaper backend:
scripts/build-mpvpaper.sh
./target/release/frescoContributing
Issues and PRs welcome. See CHANGELOG.md for release history.
License
GPL-3.0-or-later — free and open source forever.
<div align="center"> <sub>Fresco — live wallpaper / video wallpaper / animated desktop background for Debian-based Linux. Made with ☕ for the Linux desktop community.</sub> </div>