CODEWITHSUNDEEP
raspbiandebian-buster
BenS
BenS

Reputation: 45

How to run a script from startup on Raspbian 10 (buster)?

I have designed a GUI that I want to run as soon as I turn on my Raspberry Pi. It is currently set up to automatically log in as user on startup, but if that makes the process more difficult I can change that. My Raspi runs on Raspbian 10 (buster), which has made things difficult since I can only find tutorials for Raspbian 8 or so.

I have tried modifying autostart folder, but it is not in the same location as it was in previous Raspbian versions and doesn't seem to be working the way it used to. Tutorials have said to create a .desktop file in /home/pi/.config/autostart but I don't have a .config folder, or at least it's hidden. For me, autostart is in /etc/xdg/autostart and when I try to create a new file here using nano in the terminal, I get the message [Directory '/etc/xdg/autostart' is not writable] and it doesn't save my file.

I have also tried calling my script in /etc/rc.local but it did nothing. Some have said it doesn't work for GUIs.

Here's what I type into terminal:

$ nano /etc/xdg/autostart/gui.desktop

and a new file pops up, but at the bottom I get the warning [Directory '/etc/xdg/autostart' is not writable]

How can I get my GUI script to run on startup with Raspbian 10 (buster)?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 3996

Answers (2)

Derek
Derek

Reputation: 21

Would it be better to have the python program run in a terminal window from startup? That way you would see what it is doing in case of errors.

If so, perhaps check this out https://stackoverflow.com/a/61730679/7575617

By the way, in the file manager, hit CTRL+H to toggle viewing hidden files and folders.

Upvotes: 0

Sam
Sam

Reputation: 299

There are a number of issues here, first when you are looking at tutorials recognize that Linux distros are built in layers, for simplicity let's say your "layer stack" looks like this: kernel, systemd, x11, xdg, lxde. The kernel boots, then starts systemd, which then starts x11 (and a lot of other stuff), x11 starts xdg (and some other stuff, I think), lxde is started by either x11 or xdg I'm not sure which.

You want to add something to this process, you can do it at the kernel level (bad idea), at they systemd level (probably not right unless its a daemon), at the x11 level (still probably bad as you still don't have a user session yet), or at the xdg or lxde level.

xdg is probably the right place as it has all you need ( a gui, a user session) while being common (xdg will still work if you switch window managers, probably)

With that out of the way, why isn't your solution of modifying xdg working? It's because '/etc/xdg/autostart' is a system configuration directory. Any changes made to it will apply to all users. You may want this, but the system is trying to protect other users on your system and only allows root to make changes to everyone. If you want to do that use "sudo" (documented elsewhere on stack exchange and the internet). If you want to do it just for you use ~/.config/autostart, (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/XDG_Autostart) you might need to create that directory with "mkdir ~/.config/" and then "emacs ~/.config/autostart"

Upvotes: 1

Related Questions