Setting the background

The background image on your screen can be set with the command 
xsetbg filename
For example, to set your background to an artist's rendering of the new CIS building being built next to Dreese Lab, use 
xsetbg /usr/local/bitmap/raster/new-building.raster

The images can be found in the directory /usr/local/bitmap/raster, and can be casually viewed using the command 

xview -slideshow filenames...
When this is run, pressing "n", or "p" (in the xview window) goes to the next or previous image in the list, and "q" quits.

Setting at startup

The startup of your X session is controlled by your .xinitrc file. This places windows on the screen, and starts various other programs. You can add a command to this file to set the background image.

There's one small catch. The window manager we use (tvtwm) overwrites the X background when it (the window manager) starts. So you need to set the background after the window manager starts, but you have to leave the window manager as the last command in your .xinitrc. So, add the following line to your .xinitrc, just before the last line (which should contain "tvtwm"): 

  (sleep 30 ; xsetbg /usr/local/bitmap/raster/filename) &

Last Update: 1/12/94 JGW

Original author: TAF