# Nitrogen not working anymore

**URL:** https://forum.maboxlinux.org/t/nitrogen-not-working-anymore/2440
**Category:** Basic Help & Support
**Created:** [January 20, 2026, 2:06pm UTC](https://forum.maboxlinux.org/t/nitrogen-not-working-anymore/2440 "2026-01-20T14:06:48Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![Finrod](https://forum.maboxlinux.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/ecb155/32.png) [@Finrod](https://forum.maboxlinux.org/u/Finrod)
#### Post date: [January 20, 2026, 2:06pm UTC](https://forum.maboxlinux.org/t/nitrogen-not-working-anymore/2440/1 "2026-01-20T14:06:48Z")

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hi everybody 😀

Nitrogen stopped working on my Maboxlinux machine, if I try launching it from the terminal I get this error message:

```auto
/usr/local/bin/nitrogen: line 16: $1: unbound variable

```

How can I sort this? Many thanks 😊

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### Author: ![napcok](https://forum.maboxlinux.org/user_avatar/forum.maboxlinux.org/napcok/32/410_2.png) [@napcok](https://forum.maboxlinux.org/u/napcok)
#### Post date: [January 20, 2026, 2:33pm UTC](https://forum.maboxlinux.org/t/nitrogen-not-working-anymore/2440/2 "2026-01-20T14:33:40Z")

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Hello @Finrod ,  
Nitrogen is no longer used in Mabox to set wallpapers. It is unmaintained since many years. And it has a long history of problems and bugs.

`/usr/local/bin/nitrogen` is old Mabox wrapper (not used anymore).

Please try to get familiar with other ways to set wallpaper in Mabox:

- `W-A-w` (super + alt +w) will show you: “Wallpaper Menu”
- you can also set wallpaper from Image files context menu from filemanager

If you really want to try real Nitrogen, you must compile it yourself. It is available from AUR (and depends on more AUR outdated packages).  
Not recommended.

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Finrod](https://forum.maboxlinux.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/ecb155/32.png) [@Finrod](https://forum.maboxlinux.org/u/Finrod)
#### Post date: [January 20, 2026, 2:42pm UTC](https://forum.maboxlinux.org/t/nitrogen-not-working-anymore/2440/3 "2026-01-20T14:42:02Z")

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no, no… I’m not a Nitrogen fanboy 😊 and I can live without it. I was just wondering why it wasn’t working and if it could be fixed… I’ll uninstall it, and use the other ways you mentioned (I was already familiar with the context menu). Many thanks! 👍

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### Author: ![napcok](https://forum.maboxlinux.org/user_avatar/forum.maboxlinux.org/napcok/32/410_2.png) [@napcok](https://forum.maboxlinux.org/u/napcok)
#### Post date: [January 20, 2026, 2:45pm UTC](https://forum.maboxlinux.org/t/nitrogen-not-working-anymore/2440/4 "2026-01-20T14:45:53Z")

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Also we have `pcmanwp` script available from menu as _Menu → Settings → Choose wallpaper._  
It opens PCManFM with all wallpaper directories opened in tabs.

But this one might be really slow if you have big wallpaper collections.

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### Author: ![Finrod](https://forum.maboxlinux.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/ecb155/32.png) [@Finrod](https://forum.maboxlinux.org/u/Finrod)
#### Post date: [January 20, 2026, 2:56pm UTC](https://forum.maboxlinux.org/t/nitrogen-not-working-anymore/2440/5 "2026-01-20T14:56:38Z")

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I only have the default wallpapers that came when I installed Mabox in that folder, I keep mine elsewhere.

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### Author: ![Ursi\_Janecks](https://forum.maboxlinux.org/user_avatar/forum.maboxlinux.org/ursi_janecks/32/4348_2.png) [@Ursi\_Janecks](https://forum.maboxlinux.org/u/Ursi_Janecks)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2026, 3:30pm UTC](https://forum.maboxlinux.org/t/nitrogen-not-working-anymore/2440/6 "2026-01-29T15:30:20Z")

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I didn’t realize Mabox had moved away from Nitrogen. The Menu → Settings path is actually way more convenient than dealing with a broken wrapper.