Script to start ES or Desktop on boot

Frazatto

@mitu
https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/raspberry-pi-os/
"Raspberry Pi OS (32-bit) with desktop and recommended software"
Than Retropie flowing the GIT guide.

How does your look like?
What does this file do?

mitu

@Frazatto Not sure if that file is the culprit, but I've seen configuration when the default tty was modified via that file. Sorry, I have no ideas why it's not working, I just tested on a stock RetroPie install and couldn't get any errors.

Frazatto

@mitu don't worry, you tried to the very end and I thank you!
On the Raspberry forum nobody even bothered to answer me :P

mitu

@Frazatto said in Script to start ES or Desktop on boot:

On the Raspberry forum nobody even bothered to answer me :P

That's probably because your problem is specific to the RetroPie auto-start configuration and not something Raspbian/Raspberry Pi related.

Frazatto

Just for future reference, I was messing around with this problem again and it just worked now........

So to recap, if you want to change between X and EmulationStation depending on what output is connected, change /opt/retropie/configs/all/autostart.sh to something like the code below and it should work.

#if HDMI connected, go to desktop
video="$(tvservice -s)"

if [[ $video =~ "HDMI" ]];
then
startx
else
emulationstation #auto
fi

I believe my Pi had some inconsistency in which user had ownership over the display, I manually set up ES and Rapibian to start on cmd, than in raspconfig set it to start X and lastly changed it back to ES to start by default. (yes, sounds complicated, but it was an accident really)

After that, the code snippet should work as intended.

millanzarreta

Sorry to resurrect this interesting topic so much later. I came to it after looking for a script that allows us to select in a menu at the start if we want to start emulationstation or the desktop. I know that it's not exactly the same as what was discussed in this thread but it's very related. I've ended up making a custom script modifying /opt/retropie/configs/all/autostart.sh, and since I think it might be useful to someone, I'll leave it here for reference (this is the new content of that autostart.sh file):

## Get WT Sizes
WT_HEIGHT=18
WT_WIDTH=$(tput cols)
if [ -z "$WT_WIDTH" ] || [ "$WT_WIDTH" -lt 60 ]; then
  WT_WIDTH=80
fi
if [ "$WT_WIDTH" -gt 178 ]; then
  WT_WIDTH=120
fi
WT_MENU_HEIGHT=$(($WT_HEIGHT-7))

## Get Architecture
ARCH=$(dpkg --print-architecture)

## Dialog Menu
if [ "$ARCH" = "armhf" ] || [ "$ARCH" = "arm64" ] ; then
  sw=`DIALOG_ERROR=5 DIALOG_ESC=1 dialog --timeout 6 --no-cancel --title "Raspberry Pi Startup Selection Tool" --backtitle "$(cat /proc/device-tree/model)" \
    --menu "Startup Options" $WT_HEIGHT $WT_WIDTH $WT_MENU_HEIGHT \
    "1 EmulationStation" "Front-end of RetroPie Project" \
    "2 Desktop" "Raspbian PIXEL Desktop Enviroment" \
    "3 Console" "Abort auto-start and remain in console" \
    3>&1 1>&2 2>&3`
else
  sw=`DIALOG_ERROR=5 DIALOG_ESC=1 dialog --timeout 6 --no-cancel --title "Raspberry Pi Startup Selection Tool" \
    --menu "Startup Options" $WT_HEIGHT $WT_WIDTH $WT_MENU_HEIGHT \
    "1 EmulationStation" "Front-end of RetroPie Project" \
    "2 Desktop" "Raspbian PIXEL Desktop Enviroment" \
    "3 Console" "Abort auto-start and remain in console" \
    3>&1 1>&2 2>&3`
fi
rc=$?
#reset  #no needed
clear
source $HOME/.bashrc
case $rc in
  0)
    case "$sw" in
      "1 EmulationStation")
        emulationstation ;;
      "2 Desktop")
        startx ;;
      "3 Console")
        echo "" ;;
      *)
        emulationstation ;;
    esac;;
  1)
    emulationstation ;;
  5)
    emulationstation ;;
  *)
    emulationstation ;;
esac

This is what it looks like:

autostart_retropie_screenshot

It's set to run emulationstation by default. A timeout of 6 seconds is established, so if the user does not press any key for 6 seconds, the default option (emulationstation) is executed. I've used dialog for the menu instead of whiptailonly because this last doesn't have the --timeout option, and although you can achieve a similar effect with other tricks it's a bit more complicated, both should work fine either way.