Anyone else having recent trouble with Variety Wallpaper Changer?

[XunilXunil]

Anyone else having a similar problem?

I use Ubuntu 22.04.5 LTS with Gnome 42.9. I have been using Variety Wallpaper changer for years which I always install from the Ubuntu repository. I have it set to start at startup and my backgrounds to change every 15 mins. It normally works incredibly well but last night, I noticed my wallpaper seemed to have been stuck on a certain image for a while. On further investigation, I found that the app indicator for Variety was missing.

Thinking the app had crashed, I went to re-start it manually from the menus and discovered I couldn't because its icon was not in the Gnome menu. Variety Slideshow's icon is still there and it functions fine. I opened the Ubuntu repository and found that according to the ubuntu package manager, it was still installed on my system. Nonetheless, I uninstalled and re-installed.

Nothing. No change. The icon is missing from the menus even after a system reboot and the program will not run at startup. I checked. The .desktopfile is still there.

I noticed in the 'ask ubuntu' forum, someone was having trouble using Variety on my version of ubuntu in dark mode. I use light mode, however.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Update: Further investigation reveals that the binary executable is also missing from the usr/bin folder. That explains why it won't run! It isn't there!! I don't understand why re-installing the program doesn't work to replace the missing binary. Has someone broken the installer in the ubuntu repository?

 

[XunilXunil]

I have solved this myself. The latest version of Variety seems simply to be incompatible with Ubuntu Jammy Jellyfish but no one is talking about it. There is a known 'issue' mention on the official page where the .desktop file needs to be installed manually with the latest version, whatever that means. I'm not sure how you do that. I assume they mean you need to create it in a text editor. There is no further instruction that I could see.

The problem is deeper than this though as I have mentioned. The binary seems to be missing from the install package or is not installed for some other reason. To fix this, simply install the previous version as there was NOTHING wrong with it. Search for version 0.8.5-2 by typing: variety_0.8.5-2_all.deb into your browser. Download the deb file. Run it with your your software installer and 'hey presto', Variety has an icon, starts at startup and works perfectly again!! Hope this helps others.

 

[KGIII]

I have solved this myself.

You can edit your first post. In the title area, there's a drop-down for a prefix, which is where you can mark this as solved.

Also, there's something great about being able to resolve your own problems.