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Crownpaper · GuidesIntroductionCrownpaper is the GPU wallpaper daemon for CrownOS and other Wayland desktops.
Crownpaper · GuidesQuickstartBuild Crownpaper, start the daemon and change your wallpaper from the command line.
Crownpaper · GuidesConfigurationChoose the startup wallpaper, tune transitions and control how much memory Crownpaper keeps.
Crownpaper · API ReferenceProtocol overviewTalk to the Crownpaper daemon over crownos-ipc with a typed Rust client.
Crownpaper · API ReferencesetTransition the desktop to a new wallpaper.
Crownpaper · API ReferencepreloadDecode wallpapers into the GPU cache so a later set is instant.
Crownpaper · API ReferencepingA round trip that proves the daemon is alive and has drained everything sent before it.
Crownpaper · API ReferenceChangedPushed to every subscriber with the wallpaper that is now on screen.
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Troubleshooting

Video wallpapers don't play

Still images work but videos stay blank or fall back to the previous wallpaper.

Updated

Video wallpapers need the crownpaper-video helper, FFmpeg and a working VA-API driver. If any of them is missing, still images keep working and videos fail.

Fix it

  1. Check the helper is installed next to the daemon

    ls "$(dirname "$(command -v crownpaper)")"/crownpaper-video

    If the file is missing, reinstall both binaries from target/release.

  2. Check hardware decoding

    vainfo

    vainfo should list a driver and decode profiles. Install the VA-API driver for your GPU if it reports an error.

  3. Read the daemon log

    RUST_LOG=crownpaper=debug crownpaper daemon

    Then run crownpaper set with the video again and look for decoder errors.

Common questions

Does a video wallpaper keep FFmpeg loaded all the time?

No. Decoding runs in the separate crownpaper-video process, which runs only while a video plays.

Which formats work?

Anything your FFmpeg build and VA-API driver can decode. H.264 and HEVC are the safest choices.

Still need help?

Ask the community or open an issue with your logs attached.

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