HOWTO: Autologin and Autostart XFCE (just pushing power button)

[peekpt]

Are you tired off typing logins? Don't want to load heavy/waste of time login managers?

This guide let's you have autologin and autostart for your XFCE: :razz:

Let's open a console and then create the file autologin.c


sudo nano autologin.c

and paste this code inside (middle mouse button will paste the text you underline):



int main() {
execlp( "login", "login", "-f", "your_user_here", 0);
}


replace the string: your_user_here with the user you want to autologin. (ctrl+X to save) btw, use your prefered editor.

Let's compile.. you will need to have gcc installed:


sudo gcc -o autologin autologin.c

copy the compiled autologin file into /usr/local/sbin


sudo cp autologin /usr/local/sbin

now we need to edit the file /etc/inittab


sudo nano /etc/inittab

search for this:


1:2345:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty1

put a # to comment this line and add this new line:



1:2345:respawn:/sbin/getty -n -l /usr/local/sbin/autologin 38400 tty1


it will look like this:


#1:2345:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty1
1:2345:respawn:/sbin/getty -n -l /usr/local/sbin/autologin 38400 tty1
2:23:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty2
3:23:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty3
4:23:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty4
5:23:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty5


this will make the autologin stuff...



let's make the autostart:


nano .bash_profile

put this code on the bottom and save it



if [ -z "$DISPLAY" ] && [ $(tty) == /dev/tty1 ]; then
startxfce4
fi



then you just have to remove your login manager :


sudo apt-get remove gdm xdm kdm


reboot your machine

I used this page as guide:

http://www.dicas-l.unicamp.br/dicas-l/20030129.shtml

[abowman]

All I did was install Xfce with synaptic and then opened up the Login Screen Setup which can be found under Settings and clicked on Auto Login and selected a user.

[anggarda]

abowman, I think you missread the title of his thread.

His howto is the *efficient way of loading xfce on a light system.

The various, login managers, utilise memory in the background.

Salut.

[telmo]

I'll try it... But if i screw my Ubuntu... I'LL KICK YOUR ASS!!! (gently!) :)
Just kidding!

[peekpt]

I'll try it... But if i screw my Ubuntu... I'LL KICK YOUR ASS!!! (gently!) :)
Just kidding!
:grin: I just did this because it's no need to load gdm (lloading extra libs) when you are the only user on the system... I have the autologin running on my laptop with a customized kernel. It boots fast and with the autologin faster.
xfce rox... \\:D/

[wirjo]

:grin: I just did this because it's no need to load gdm (lloading extra libs) when you are the only user on the system... I have the autologin running on my laptop with a customized kernel. It boots fast and with the autologin faster.
xfce rox... \\:D/
How do you bring back the login manager that you deleted?

[ChrisNiemy]

Works even better when you uses "startx" instead of "startxfce4" in the ~/.bash_profile

Otherwise I got problems with font savings etc.

Looks like this (compared with first post here):


if [ -z "$DISPLAY" ] && [ $(tty) == /dev/tty1 ]; then
startx
fi


Thanks so much for this! Just great! Couldn`t think of this would work. So cool :D

[conor]

This is a great idea! I have a few problems though. When I turn on the computer the autologin works and then xfce4 will begin to load. After a few milliseconds though it boots me out to the command line again and I have to type "sudo startx". Then everything runs as root. What did I do wrong?

Nevermind, I was wrong. It works now.

[Haegin]

If you are using a newer version of ubuntu you will need to


sudo apt-get install gcc-3.4

then replace


sudo gcc -o autologin autologin.c

with


sudo gcc-3.4 -o autologin autologin.c

so it compiles correctly

[peschkaj]

Wouldn't it also be possible to use something like sysv-rc-conf to remove gdm from the boot order and still use the method you described?

[Haegin]

No reason why not. Try it if you want?

[blair]

Thanks for the tip. I will try this. I do have a question however. I *DO* want a graphical login for one of my PCs to keep my kids out of my stuff. I did a Ubuntu server install and then loaded xfce-desktop. Now when my system boots, it only boots to a prompt. I can manually startx or startxfce, but how do I get an auto-login prompt on system boot up. I tried both xdm and gdm, but could get neither to work. Everything appears fine in init.d and I have a default-display-manager file created.

Any suggestions appreciated. Thanks.

[pvanhoof]

If you are using a newer version of ubuntu you will need to


sudo apt-get install gcc-3.4

then replace


sudo gcc -o autologin autologin.c

with


sudo gcc-3.4 -o autologin autologin.c

so it compiles correctly

Why don't you just use rungetty tty1 --autologin USERNAME instead of compiling a autologin.c yourself? Rungetty supports this stuff just fine.

[pvanhoof]

No idea why people here are recommending to compile a autologin.c file yourself. Just use rungetty in /etc/inittab:

Step 1 (on your minimal install):

apt-get install rungetty

Replace in /etc/inittab

1:2345:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty1

With

1:2345:respawn:/sbin/rungetty tty1 --autologin USERNAME

You can use exec in .bash_profile of USERNAME and you can also pass the command rungetty must execute (man rungetty) in the inittab file.

For systemd follow the guides on how to configure getty (getties) in systemd, and use rungetty instead of getty.