~/.config/autostart and /etc/xdg/autostart ignored

[Alexandre Cunha]

Binary package hint: gnome-session

Ubuntu 9.10 RC

The list off applications listed on the ~/.config/autostar directory, are ignored and not auto started as expected.
This happens with the main user (user group 1000). Using another user this does't occur.

Have emptied the user directory for the main user (so, cleaned all the settngs and definitions for that user). Logout. Login. Added new programs to the ~/.config/autostart (via System > preferences > startup application. Logout. Login. No applications have autostarted. This includes the volume control, nm-applet and all other applications on the autostart list (/etc/xdg/autostart).

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: amd64
Date: Sun Oct 25 23:38:49 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala" - Release Candidate amd64 (20091020.3)
Package: gnome-session 2.28.0-0ubuntu5
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=pt:pt_BR:en
 LANG=pt_PT.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bhostname/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-14.48-generic
SourcePackage: gnome-session
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-14-generic x86_64
XsessionErrors:
 (gnome-settings-daemon:9279): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_propagate_error: assertion `src != NULL' failed
 (nautilus:9297): Eel-CRITICAL **: eel_preferences_get_boolean: assertion `preferences_is_initialized ()' failed
 (gnome-panel:9298): Gtk-WARNING **: gtk_widget_size_allocate(): attempt to allocate widget with width -9 and height 24
 (polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1:9402): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_once_init_leave: assertion `initialization_value != 0' failed
 (gnome-panel:9298): Gdk-CRITICAL **: gdk_x11_colormap_foreign_new: assertion `GDK_IS_VISUAL (visual)' failed

[Chris Coulson (chrisccoulson)]

I don't have any such issues there. Are you sure you're not starting a failsafe session?

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

We are closing this bug report because it lacks the information we need to investigate the problem, as described in the previous comments. Please reopen it if you can give us the missing information, and don't hesitate to submit bug reports in the future. To reopen the bug report you can click on the current status, under the Status column, and change the Status back to New. Thanks again!.

[SwaJime (john-swajime)]

I am also having this problem ...
The system does not load the startup items automatically.
What 'missing information' do you need to have in order to troubleshoot this?

$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 9.10
Release: 9.10
Codename: karmic

j

[SwaJime (john-swajime)]

I've copied the files from the etc/xdg/autostart directory to *all* of the autostart directories, and still these files appear to be being ignored ....

Right now, to get my volume, wifi, power, bluetooth, and etc. applets to work, I have to run a script every time I boot the system up:
# cat startus.sh
/usr/lib/at-spi/at-spi-registryd &
bluetooth-applet &
sh -c "sleep 30; exec /usr/lib/evolution/2.28/evolution-alarm-notify" &
gnome-at-visual -s &
 gnome-keyring-daemon --start &
gnome-power-manager &
gnome-screensaver &
/usr/lib/gnome-settings-daemon/gnome-settings-daemon &
/usr/lib/gnome-session/helpers/gnome-settings-daemon-helper &
gnome-volume-control-applet &
/usr/lib/gnome-volume-manager/gnome-volume-manager --sm-disable &
sh -c "sleep 60 && python /usr/share/gnome-panel/add-indicator-applet.py" &
sh -c 'test -e /var/cache/jockey/check || exec jockey-gtk --check 60' &
# maximus &
netbook-launcher &
nm-applet --sm-disable &
/usr/lib/policykit-1-gnome/polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1 &
sh -c "sleep 30; exec system-config-printer-applet > /dev/null 2> /dev/null" &
seahorse-daemon &
update-notifier --debug-updates --startup-delay 60 &
xdg-user-dirs-gtk-update &
/usr/lib/vino/vino-server --sm-disable &
wicd-client &
yahoo-set-defaults-user &

# for D in $(find / -name autostart); do echo -e "\n$D:"; ls -A $D; done

/etc/xdg/autostart:
at-spi-registryd.desktop gnome-settings-daemon-helper.desktop print-applet.desktop
bluetooth-applet.desktop gnome-volume-control-applet.desktop seahorse-daemon.desktop
evolution-alarm-notify.desktop gnome-volume-manager.desktop update-notifier.desktop
gnome-at-session.desktop indicator-applet.desktop user-dirs-update-gtk.desktop
gnome-keyring-daemon.desktop jockey-gtk.desktop vino-server.desktop
gnome-power-manager.desktop netbook-launcher.desktop yahoo-set-defaults-user.desktop
gnome-screensaver.desktop nm-applet.desktop
gnome-settings-daemon.desktop polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1.desktop

/home/swajime/.config/autostart:
at-spi-registryd.desktop gnome-settings-daemon-helper.desktop polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1.desktop
bluetooth-applet.desktop gnome-volume-control-applet.desktop print-applet.desktop
evolution-alarm-notify.desktop gnome-volume-manager.desktop seahorse-daemon.desktop
gnome-at-session.desktop gome-terminal.desktop update-notifier.desktop
gnome-keyring-daemon.desktop indicator-applet.desktop user-dirs-update-gtk.desktop
gnome-power-manager.desktop jockey-gtk.desktop vino-server.desktop
gnome-screensaver.desktop netbook-launcher.desktop xhost.desktop
gnome-settings-daemon.desktop nm-applet.desktop yahoo-set-defaults-user.desktop

/usr/share/gnome/autostart:
at-spi-registryd.desktop gnome-settings-daemon-helper.desktop polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1.desktop
bluetooth-applet.desktop gnome-volume-control-applet.desktop print-applet.desktop
evolution-alarm-notify.desktop gnome-volume-manager.desktop ...

[Chris Coulson (chrisccoulson)]

Please start a failsafe xterm session from GDM. From this, please run "gnome-session --debug 2>&1 | tee ~/gnome-session.log", and attach the resulting file to this bug report.

Please remove the files you duplicated before doing this though

[SwaJime (john-swajime)]

Ok ... I removed those files, and ran the command you gave me. It gave me 5700 lines of output!

For some reason, when I did that, all of the programs started like they were supposed to. And they started again like they were supposed to on the next reboot too.

:-)

[SwaJime (john-swajime)]

I am satisfied now that it seems to be working.
I'll be happy to help if there's any more info you might still want or need.

Many many thanks ! :-)

[SwaJime (john-swajime)]

I am still getting errors though ...

It seems that the desktop files are not including full paths for some reason?

swajime@swajime-laptop:~# grep gnome-session daemon.log
Jan 10 11:35:42 swajime-laptop gnome-session[1607]: WARNING: Application 'gnome-settings-daemon.desktop' failed to register before timeout
Jan 10 11:36:05 swajime-laptop gnome-session[1607]: WARNING: Could not launch application '10a84bf324da1cbf7a126299936620657100000016710011.desktop': Unable to start application: Failed to execute child process "evolution-exchange-storage" (No such file or directory)
Jan 10 11:36:06 swajime-laptop gnome-session[1607]: WARNING: Could not launch application '10a84bf324da1cbf7a126299925717246000000016710004.desktop': Unable to start application: Failed to execute child process "computertemp" (No such file or directory)
Jan 10 11:36:07 swajime-laptop gnome-session[1607]: WARNING: Could not launch application '10a84bf324da1cbf7a126299926268113600000016710006.desktop': Unable to start application: Failed to execute child process "indicator-applet-session" (No such file or directory)
swajime@swajime-laptop:~# find / -name 10a84bf324da1cbf7a126299936620657100000016710011.desktop
/home/swajime/.config/gnome-session/saved-session/10a84bf324da1cbf7a126299936620657100000016710011.desktop
^C
swajime@swajime-laptop:~# cat /home/swajime/.config/gnome-session/saved-session/10a84bf324da1cbf7a126299936620657100000016710011.desktop

[Desktop Entry]
Name=evolution-exchange-storage
Comment=Client 10a84bf324da1cbf7a126299936620657100000016710011 which was automatically saved
Icon=system-run
Type=Application
StartupNotify=true
X-GNOME-Autostart-startup-id=10a84bf324da1cbf7a126299936620657100000016710011
Exec=evolution-exchange-storage --sm-config-prefix /evolution-exchange-storage-Vbjhgz/ --sm-client-id 10a84bf324da1cbf7a126299936620657100000016710011 --screen 0
swajime@swajime-laptop:~# evolution
evolution evolution-addressbook-export
swajime@swajime-laptop:~# find / -name evolution-exchange-storage
/usr/lib/evolution/2.28/evolution-exchange-storage

[tredegar (tgar)]

I have the same bug:

Programs supposedly called from the .desktop files in ~/.config/autostart do not run.

For example my "Update notifier" never runs, unless I start it manually. I found this when I added an entry to turn off capslock. This is the script that is called from the .desktop file:

#!/bin/bash
# Make capslock be shift
# sleep 10
xmodmap -e "remove Lock = Caps_Lock"
xmodmap -e "add Shift = Caps_Lock"

It does NOT work, unless I uncomment the "sleep 10", so I think this is some sort of race-condition and xmodmap is being called before it can function properly.

My kernel = 2.6.32-22-generic #36-Ubuntu SMP and 10.04 is up-to-date.

[Chapliev Viktor (viktor-tch)]

Solutions:
sudo rm -R /var/cache/gdm
sudo chown -R user_name:user_name /home/user_name

[Hans Hellén (hans-hellen)]

I have succeeded to start scripts and applications by gnome-schedule.

[ulin (uros-p-simic)]

tredegar: that works great, thanks!

[Martin Schayna (mschayna)]

Timing issue, confirmed too. In my case startup script looks like this:

#!/bin/bash
sleep 10
xinput --set-button-map "Laser Mouse" 1 2 3 4 5 8 9 8 9
empathy -h
start-skype.sh

but without "sleep" does nothing. IMHO many users will be affected...

[Martin Schayna (mschayna)]

Update to previously written findings:

Empathy starts ok (occasionally with wrong notification "Password required", see bug #840875) but skype doesn't start ever. When I have tried some zenity dialogs into script, they didn't show, but empathy has started:

#!/bin/bash
sleep 10
xinput --set-button-map "Laser Mouse" 1 2 3 4 5 8 9 8 9
empathy -h
zenity --display=:0 --info --text="Starting Skype..."
start-skype.sh

Very strange... Running Ubuntu 11.10 release, Unity 2D.