I built a slideshow system on my laptop for the local cub scouts, using xv: #!/bin/bash xsetroot -solid black & xset -dpms & xset s off & /usr/slideshow/unclutter & while true do cd /usr/slideshow/scouts /usr/local/bin/xv -wait 3 -random */*.jpg done I pre-scaled all my images to match the screen size, else you can add "-maxpect" to that command line. Scaling results in faster switching between images.