Getting a startup script to start?

DJQuad

Hey all, I'm trying to get a script started at boot. It doesn't start when added to crontab ("@reboot /usr/local/bin/start-script") at the bottom, nor does it by adding it to /etc/rc.local. It only starts if I start it manually and then it runs fine.

Is there some sort of trick to getting scripts to run on a Raspberry Pi with RetroPie at boot?

Note: I'm actually testing this on a Debian VM with Emulation Station.

CrazySpence

rc.local should work are you putting & at the end so it goes in the background?

i run a few things in rc.local works on wheezy and jessie without issue

full path is also important when using rc.local

in the file for example and if it's a bash script make sure it's got #!/bin/sh at the beginning of the file

#!/bin/sh
/usr/local/bin/start-script &

Those are just a few things I can think of off the top of my head

DJQuad

Thanks for the reply. Here's my rc.local -
/usr/local/bin/start-video-screensaver &
exit 0

It's a Python script. Should I try putting this as the first line instead of #!/bin/sh?
#!/usr/bin/env python2

CrazySpence

rc.local is a shell script so no you want #!/bin/sh in it

in your python script though you should start it with the python line if it doesn't have it already

or prefix the script with python /path/to/script

glennlake

@DJQuad I'm not sure if this will work but you may try just putting sudo at the start of each line you want to run. If is doesn't work it can just be deleted.:-)

tehswiftone

This is how I got my python restart script to work.

Save script to /home/pi
Edit the /etc/rc.local file and add the following line ABOVE 'Exit 0'
python /home/pi/restart.py &

DJQuad

Unfortunately no go. Can any of you please try it on an actual Pi preferably with RetroPie installed? The script is actually on GitHub at https://github.com/windweaver828/Video-Screensaver and the readme is at https://github.com/windweaver828/Video-Screensaver/blob/master/README.md

xautolock should be listed as a process if it's running and I also set the start time in the cfg to 1 minute.

BuZz

@DJQuad That wont work with RetroPie. It is designed to be run under a desktop on X (it uses some X tools, but could be modified I guess to work without them).

DJQuad

Even though Omxplayer is used to play the videos?

BuZz

Yes. It uses xautolock

http://linux.die.net/man/1/xautolock

The code would need changing to remove this dependency and use another method to trigger etc.

DJQuad

Right but like I said, it runs just fine and as expected if it's started manually after a restart.

Perhaps turning it into a service would be better since it needs to be run as root?