Feature #469: Automatically Start X and Login On Arch - GNU/Linux Administration - ALT Project Management

Feature #469

Automatically Start X and Login On Arch

Added by Daniel Curtis about 10 years ago. Updated about 9 years ago.

Status:

Closed

Priority:

Normal

Assignee:

Daniel Curtis

Category:

Workstation

Target version:

Arch Linux

Start date:

10/05/2014

Due date:

% Done:

100%

Estimated time:

1.00 h

Spent time:

1.50 h

Description

While setting up an Arch box, I needed to have the ability to automatically start X and login as a given user. This guide assumes that a base Arch installation has been setup, similar to Issue #207 and logged in as root.

Install a Desktop Environment¶

Start by installing the X Window Server and extra packages:
```
pacman -S xorg xorg-server xorg-apps xorg-xinit
```

Now install a desktop environment, this guide uses LXDE:
```
pacman -S lxde
```

Set Up Automatic Login¶

Create a new service file similar to getty.service@ by copying it to /etc/systemd/system/:
```
cp /usr/lib/systemd/system/getty@.service /etc/systemd/system/autologin@.service
```

You will then have to symlink that autologin.service@ to the getty service for the tty on which you want to autologin, for example for tty1:
```
ln -s /etc/systemd/system/autologin@.service /etc/systemd/system/getty.target.wants/getty@tty1.service
```

Modify the autologin.service@ to actually log you in automatically:
```
vi /etc/systemd/system/getty.target.wants/getty\@tty1.service
```
- Change the ExecStart line to read:
```
ExecStart=-/sbin/agetty -a USERNAME %I 38400
```
- NOTE: Change the USERNAME to the user that will automatically be logged in as.

Tell systemd to reload its daemon files and start the service:
```
systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl start getty@tty1.service
```

Set Up Automatic X Startup¶

If you then want to automatically start X, edit the users ~/.bash_profile:
```
vi ~/.bash_profile
```
- And insert the following snippet at the end:
```
if [[ -z $DISPLAY ]] && [[ $(tty) = /dev/tty1 ]]; then
 exec startx
fi
```

Create a .xinitrc file:
```
vi ~/.xinitrc
```
- Then add the following to the end of the .xinitrc file:
```
#!/bin/sh
exec startlxde
```

By now you should be able to run startx and have a desktop environment. Now reboot and check to see that the desktop environment loads up correctly.