I am trying to build a computer-based lighting console for a charity organization, and I have everything setup using QLC+ and Ubuntu, but I want to set it so that once the volunteers log in, it does not load the desktop, rather it goes straight into QLC+, and even if closed does not load the desktop. There are a number of reasons for that, the first is security. Since this organization is 100% volunteer run, I don't want anyone messing with the OS once I have everything configured. The second reason is to reduce overhead, but that isn't as important to me as the security aspect.
I know in Windows, I could simply create a batch script that starts QLC+, and modify the registry entry at: HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\Current Version\Winlogon\Shell
to point to the batch file instead of explorer.exe
, but I'm pretty sure that Ubuntu will work better for this project than Windows will; even though QLC+ is cross platform.
Here's what I have so far in my attempts to do this on my own:
- I can put a new startup entry in Ubuntu's Startup Applications Preferences with the command:
qlcplus --open %f
, and it opens QLC+ along with the desktop manager. I have tried replacing the ubuntu.desktop file in
/usr/share/xsessions
with a file containing the following:[Desktop Entry] Type=Application Exec=qlcplus --open %f Terminal=false Name=WSCC Lighting Console
When I start the computer with that configuration, it logs in with the GUI, but just sits and doesn't load QLC+.
Since when I open a terminal session in that state and run
startx
, it opens just QLC+ at this point, I tried modifying theubuntu.desktop
file to contain the following:[Desktop Entry] Type=Application Exec=startx Terminal=false Name=WSCC Lighting Console
It seems like I am almost there, but I am missing something.