Variety crash after update

[Meeloo]

Since last update to version 0.8.13-2, variety no longer opens

~ variety
Traceback (most recent call last):
File “/usr/bin/variety”, line 66, in 
variety.main()
~~~~~~~~~~~~^^
File “/usr/lib/python3.13/site-packages/variety/`**`init`**`.py”, line 239, in main`
window.start(arguments)
~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^
File “/usr/lib/python3.13/site-packages/variety/VarietyWindow.py”, line 116, in start`
self.prepare_config_folder()
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^
File “/usr/lib/python3.13/site-packages/variety/VarietyWindow.py”, line 253, in prepare_config_folder
varietyconfig.get_data_file(“config”, “variety.conf”),
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File “/usr/lib/python3.13/site-packages/variety_lib/varietyconfig.py”, line 42, in get_data_file
return os.path.join(get_data_path(), *path_segments)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^
File “/usr/lib/python3.13/site-packages/variety_lib/varietyconfig.py”, line 58, in get_data_path
raise project_path_not_found
variety_lib.varietyconfig.project_path_not_found

I tried to reinstall after deleting the config folder. Without success.

[Ben]

Variety lived WELL past it’s sell-by date… for a few years it was responsible for grabbing wallpapers and (with shortcuts) moving favourites to a favourites folder.

Now it’s best looking to retire it, safe in the knowledge that you can still set a slideshow of wallpapers from that favourites folder.

GitHub - varietywalls/variety: Wallpaper downloader and manager for Linux systems

It looks like 0.8.13 was released at the end of February 2025, so it’s not new in itself - but maybe needs some fixing to continue running.

It got touched up a few times, mostly removing dodgy/outdated downloaders (which were what made it the best) like Flickr, National Geographic etc..

I replaced the OSD clock with a conky, and you can get a quotes widget if that floats your boat… I’m not surprised that it’s not running - but I never removed it, so I can verify the same error you have.

Best practice - work around it and hope it comes back to life. Given it’s failure to get good wallpapers these days I’d say it’s best retired now anyway.

Also, is it just me, but is Wallhaven.cc a nightmare for having too much AI and annoying anime spam these days?

[Meeloo]

I only use it with local files, mainly for its ability to display widescreen wallpapers on both of my monitors and change them automatically.
It worked fine with the previous version.

The same error is described here:

Variety crashes on start on Python 3.14

[soundofthunder]

@Meeloo

I only use it with local files, mainly for its ability to display widescreen wallpapers on both of my monitors and change them automatically.

You haven’t mentioned which DE you are using.

If it is KDE Plasma, for example, the native slideshow functionality would achieve the same result.

Regards.

---

[rednose]

Hi I also use variety, and I had the same problem, and I found solution in another forum. It is a quick and dirty solution, but it works.

• edit /usr/lib/python3.13/site-packages/variety_lib/varietyconfig.py
• replace the entire fuction def get_data_path(); having only one line as in

def get_data_path():
    return "/usr/share/variety"

hope it helps. Naturally with next update change will be lost….

[Meeloo]

Sorry for forgetting to mention that. I’m using Gnome 49.

[Meeloo]

Hi. That did the trick. Thanks a lot.