I see this has been here a while, but I had the same issue a few days ago and was able to resolve it by adding the following to the command:
DISPLAY=:0 GSETTINGS_BACKEND=dconf gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri file:///path/to/background.jpg -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Desktop Packages, which is subscribed to nautilus in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1033034 Title: Setting the desktop background from cron no longer updates the desktop background Status in “nautilus” package in Ubuntu: Confirmed Bug description: I wrote a script which uses `gsettings` to change the desktop background in Gnome Shell/Unity. The command that my script executes looks like this: gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri file:///path/to/background.jpg Manually running this command immediately updates the desktop background. I use cron to schedule execution of my script. My crontab rule looks like this: 0,30 * * * * DISPLAY=:0.0 nextwall /home/serrano/Pictures/backgrounds/ Cron successfully runs the script every 30 minutes and the new wallpaper URI is successfully set in `gsettings`. I test this by running: gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri However, the desktop background is not updated when cron runs the script (this used to work until about a month ago). Interestingly, when I right click on my desktop and select "Change Desktop Background", the desktop background is suddenly updated to the correct image. So for some reason changing the desktop background from cron no longer triggers nautilus to update the desktop background. ProblemType: Bug DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04 Package: nautilus 1:3.4.2-0ubuntu4 ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-29.46-generic-pae 3.2.24 Uname: Linux 3.2.0-29-generic-pae i686 NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu12 Architecture: i386 Date: Sat Aug 4 13:09:50 2012 GsettingsChanges: org.gnome.nautilus.window-state geometry '887x481+231+101' org.gnome.nautilus.window-state maximized true org.gnome.nautilus.window-state sidebar-width 158 org.gnome.nautilus.window-state start-with-status-bar true InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Release i386 (20120423) SourcePackage: nautilus UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install) To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nautilus/+bug/1033034/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages Post to : desktop-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
