different wallpapers for each workspace, with fast switching

My setup is CentOS 6.4 running metacity and gnome.

Initially I tried the "wallpapoz" tool, only to find that (under Fedora 13 at least), it needs to run a daemon, and it overwrites your settings with the default settings at each restart (?!!).

Fortunately it turns out you don't need this tool at all.

I use Alt+F1 through Alt+F4 to select workspace 1 through 4. I'd like a different background for each workspace, and for it to change fast (not that ridiculously slow fade effect).

You need to have installed:

• gconf-editor
• GConf2
• wmctrl
• tcsh

(do a yum install for these as root)(bash will probably work just as well, see below)

Start gconf-editor, and go to apps → metacity → global keybindings. Right click on run_command_1 and select "Edit Key". Enter <Alt>F1 as the value (this is only if you want to bind switching to workspace 1 to that key, of course you can choose a different key combination). Do the same for run_command_2, run_command_3, and run_command_4.

Next, click on keybinding_commands in the left panel. Right click on command_1 and select "Edit Key". For the value, enter:

/bin/tcsh -c '/usr/bin/gconftool-2 -t string -s /desktop/gnome/background/picture_filename "<full path to first background image>"; /usr/bin/wmctrl -s 0'

Replace <full path to first background image> with the full path to the image you want to use as the background for workspace 1.

Do the same for command_2, command_3, and command_4, but replace the image file specification (obviously), and set the number for wmctrl to 1, 2, and 3 respectively (so for command_4, for example, the last bit of the command reads /usr/bin/wmctrl -s 3).

Finally, create/edit the file ~/.gtkrc-2.0, and add the line:
gtk-enable-animations = 0

Note that if you already had these shortcuts set in System → Preferences → Keyboard Shortcuts → Window Management, then you need to set those to "Disabled" (select them and press Backspace).

That should do it...