Linux.Desktop.Hacks [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Hack 72. Start Desktop Applications Automatically

Start tools, utilities, and applications
automatically as soon as you start your favorite desktop or window
manager.

You might want to start a number
of programs automatically as soon as you launch your window manager
or desktop environment. For example, assume you set up your LinEAK
keyboard utility so that you can use all the special keys on your
Internet and multimedia keyboard [Hack #29] . Naturally, you want to run
this utility every time you start your window manager, but you
don't want to have to start it manually. What you
need is a way to have LinEAK and any other program you want running
launch automatically as you start up your graphical desktop.

Some of the solutions that follow are features of the X Window
System, so they will work regardless of the window manager or desktop
you use. But many window managers and desktops also have their own
special and interesting ways to start up programs automatically, so
this hack covers those as well.

9.4.1. Back to Basics

One of the most basic ways of starting a window manager is to create
a file called ~/.xinitrc, and set it up so that
it runs your favorite window manager whenever you issue the command
startx. Assuming you use this approach,
here's the simplest form of the
.xinitrc file using Fluxbox as an example window
manager to launch:

exec /usr/bin/fluxbox

All this does is start up the
Fluxbox window manager. To start LinEAK, the custom keyboard utility,
add the following line to the .xinitrc file
before you start Fluxbox:

lineakd &
exec /usr/bin/fluxbox

Notice the ampersand (&) following
lineakd, which tells lineakd
to start in the background. Unless a program places itself
automatically in the background without a trailing ampersand, you
need to make sure you add the ampersand. Without the ampersand, the
lineakd command will not release control back to
the ~/.xinitrc script, and Fluxbox will never
start.

You can launch many additional commands via
~/.xinitrc, including commands that control how
your X11 graphical system behaves. For example, the xset
-b command turns off beeps in terminal windows. You can
also use xset to set the volume and duration of
beeps, control the lights (LEDs) on your keyboard, and much more. In
this case, you don't need an ampersand after the
xset commands, because xset
returns control to the script on its own. Here is a slightly more
advanced .xinitrc file:

xset -b
xcompmgr -cCfF -l 0 -t 0 -r 5 -o .6 &
lineakd &
exec /usr/bin/fluxbox

This script also includes the xcompmgr command [Hack #33] (which works only with
Xorg-X11 6.8 or better). This command sets window drop shadows and
fade effects. Unlike xset, the
xcompmgr program needs an ampersand to be told
to run in the background.

9.4.2. Using the Window Manager and Desktop Features

Window managers and desktop environments often provide their own
means of starting programs automatically. The rest of this hack
covers specific window managers and how they automatically run
programs.

9.4.2.1 WindowMaker

WindowMaker uses a script
file to start programs automatically. The script file is
~/GNUstep/Library/WindowMaker/autostart. You can
edit the ~/GNUstep/Library/WindowMaker/autostart
file to include commands much like the ones you would place in your
.xinitrc file. For example, put this commented
command in the autostart file to launch the
utility that enables your Internet/multimedia keyboard:

# XOSD-enabled internet/multimedia keyboard utility
lineakd &

9.4.2.2 XFce 4

When XFce 4 is started with the command
startxfce4, it will automatically start anything
you place in the ~/Desktop/Autostart/ directory.
You can place scripts, programs, or symbolic links to scripts and
programs in this directory, but you must have permission to execute
the scripts and programs for this to work. For example, the following
script will find the location of lineakd and start
it:

#!/bin/bash
LINEAKD=`which lineakd`
$LINEAKD &

You can create the script with your favorite editor, save it as
startlineakd, make it executable
(chmod +x startlineakd), and place it in the
~/Desktop/Autostart directory.

9.4.2.3 KDE

KDE is a good example of a desktop environment that
offers more power than you can configure out of the commands
available to a startup file such as ~/.xinitrc.

Many desktop environments consist of much more than a window manager.
They include panels, launchers, and more. When you start a desktop
environment, such as KDE, it automatically starts these extra
features. All of these features running together are considered a
session. You can configure KDE to remember what
applications you are running when you log out, and KDE will consider
those programs as part of the next session and start them
automatically the next time you start KDE. So, one of the simplest
ways to start programs automatically in KDE is to save your current
session when you exit KDE. In fact, most distributions preconfigure
KDE to behave this way automatically, so most of you
won't have to turn on this feature. Those of you who
don't want KDE to restart the programs you have
running when you log out will have to turn off this feature.

Some Linux distributions customize the KDE Control Center, but the
typical KDE control panel lets you control session management this
way. Start up the Control Center from the main menu, and select KDE
ComponentsSession Manager to see the options for how you
want KDE to handle sessions. You can have KDE start a new session
each time, restore the last session, or start a manually configured
session.

Alternatively, you can start up programs or open files simply by
placing them in the ~/.kde/Autostart directory.
There are actually two Autostart directories.
One is used by KDE to start up applications for every user. The
other, the ~/.kde/Autostart directory, is for
personal use. If you want to start programs, you can place a symbolic
link to the program in this directory. You can do this for scripts as
well, or even place the script itself in this directory. In all
cases, however, you must have permission to execute any scripts or
links you place in this directory.

You can also place KDE application launcher files in the
~/.kde/Autostart directory. You can create a
launcher file by right-clicking the desktop, and then selecting
Create NewFileLink to Application. The dialog
that appears is self-explanatory. You specify the name for the
launcher icon in the first tab, and click the icon to select a new
icon if you want. Click the third tab labeled Application to specify
a command to run. For example, if you specified Firefox as the name
of the launcher in the first tab, you would enter
firefox as the command in the Application tab.
This creates a new icon on your desktop with the name Firefox. Drag
this icon into your ~/.kde/Autostart directory
to start Firefox every time you start KDE.

The KDE ~/.kde/Autostart directory also boasts
another significant capability that is worth special notice. You
don't have to limit what you place in this directory
to scripts, programs, or .desktop files. You can
also place normal files, such as OpenOffice.org documents, pictures,
spreadsheets, or whatever you want in the
~/.kde/Autostart directory. KDE will
automatically open these documents as though you clicked their icons
in a folder. KDE opens these files by performing the default action
for that file type, the same way it has a default action for
launching a file when you click it.

9.4.2.4 GNOME

As with KDE, one
simple way to make sure certain programs
start automatically when you start GNOME is to set GNOME to save the
current session when you exit GNOME. GNOME automatically restores the
session the next time you log in to GNOME.

If you want to customize which applications you want started
automatically, you need to do it through the sessions manager. The
menu item for this program appears in the GNOME menu in various
places, depending on the Linux distribution, but the menu selection
itself is usually called Sessions. Click the third tab of the
Sessions dialog and enter a command you want to execute automatically
every session (Figure 9-1).

Figure 9-1. The Gnome Sessions settings dialog