yakunins / mac-lock-screen-background

Simple script that generates pixelized image, sets it as desktop wallpaper, locks Mac, sets walpaper back on unlock.

Custom background for macOS lock screen

Simple script that:

• generates pixelized image of current screen,
• puts lock-screen.png into ~/Pictures/Wallpapers/,
• sets it as desktop wallpaper,
• locks Mac,
• start waiting for unlock, then...
• ...sets back default-wallpaper.png as a desktop wallpaper.

Based on Hund's recommendations.

Installation

1. Put repo's content into $HOME folder
2. Open terminal
3. Install required tools:

# makes pixelized image with `convert` command
brew install imagemagick

# to create shortcut for launching ~/.config/lock.sh
brew install karabiner

# prevents lock screen from turning display off
brew install --cask keepingyouawake

4. perform test run:

cd ~/.config/
lock.sh

5. it should lock your Mac with pixelized screenshot,
   and on unlock set back ~/Pictures/Wallpapers/default-wallpaper.png
6. attach script to the key scroll_lock with karabiner,
   e.g. modify rules section of ~/.config/karabiner/karabiner.json with:

"manipulators": [
    {
        "description": "scroll_lock to run ~/.config/lock.sh",
        "from": {
            "key_code": "scroll_lock",
            "modifiers": {
                "optional": [
                    "any"
                ]
            }
        },
        "to": [
            {
		"shell_command": "/bin/zsh ~/.config/lock.sh"
            }
        ],
        "type": "basic"
    }
]

Configuration

1. replace ~/Pictures/Wallpapers/default-wallpaper.png with your own wallpaper image
2. setup other than scroll_lock key in karabiner to lock your Mac
3. set your own lock screen picture, by commentin out a two lines inside generate-lockscreen-image.sh which generates pixelated screenshot

Troubleshooting

1. set permissions for all the scripts
2. set permissions for karabiner

Cheers!