"Use default GNOME Shell background" setting doesn't work with GNOME 3.38 default wallpaper

[ngkz]

When the wallpaper is GNOME 3.38 default one, "Use default GNOME Shell background" setting does not affect. PaperWM shows a flat color instead of the wallpaper. It shows the wallpaper correctly when I select non-default wallpaper. I'm using latest PaperWM, latest Arch Linux, and GNOME 3.38.3.

[johnfraney]

I've noticed this, too, and for me it only affects "live" backgrounds that change depending on the time of day, like this one:

For static images it works well.

[hedning]

Ah, that makes sense, we haven't implemented support for animated backgrounds.

[steelcowboy]

Same behavior on Ubuntu 20.10, GNOME 3.38.1. Going into the Activities Overview shows my background (the default Groovy Gorilla), but it disappears when I go to a workspace.

Can also confirm that I see this on my work computer, Fedora 33. Also a non-animated background.

EDIT: Ah, it seems switching to a non-default wallpaper and switching back makes it show up :) I now have a background on both of my computers, yay!

[johnmee]

Wierd. I use "variety" to change the background daily. All was fine. It worked and this was not an issue for me. Not sure what I did, or why I was so lucky, but it stopped working just in the past week. The live wallpaper shows in the Overview mode, but not on the workspace.

I may have done a git pull from the develop branch. Tried switching back to gnome-42 branch and much gnome-shell resetting, and playing around in paperwm/gnome/variety preferences but no finding my way back (yet).

[johnmee]

I may have worked this one out...

Ubuntu, sets their own background which interferes? Turn that off.

gsettings set com.canonical.unity.desktop.background draw-background false

[jtaala]

Live/animated wallpaper support has been added for Gnome 42-45 with #637 (which is now merged into release and gnome-44 branches.

Closing this ticket now.

Note: support hasn't be backported for previous version of gnome shell (e.g. < 42, including gnome 3 etc.). If anyone uses these version of gnome, and is interested in porting support for animated/live wallpappers, let me know.