I frequently need to start several programs that I use every time I start my computer. How can I make it so that whenever I login the program is automatically launched?
8 Answers
To make a program start with Ubuntu:
If you're using Unity, search for the program
Startup Applications
.If you're using Ubuntu Classic, it's under Start Menu > Preferences > Startup Applications.
To make Ubuntu remember your running applications on shutdown:
Open a terminal, and run
gconf-editor
.Navigate to /apps/gnome-session/options.
Enable the option: auto_save_session.
(NOTE: this may slow system boot, and has not been throughly tested.)
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i did that but like i remember in 10.10 it has a button that said click here to remember all applications open to be start up automatically (or something like that) Apr 30, 2011 at 19:00
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That post is from February when Natty was being tested. There is no other information that goes along with it, but I would assume they are still trying to fix it.– AlanApr 30, 2011 at 19:32
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User defined sessions for applications to start after login
An alternative way to automatically start applications after login is to define a user defined session. This has the advantage to use different sessions for different task, each with different applications loaded.
For this purpose we create a custom.desktop
file as root in /usr/share/xsessions
with the following content (for GNOME/GDM):
[Desktop Entry]
Name=Marco's Crowded Session
Comment=Custom ~/.xsession script
Exec=/home/username/.xsession
X-Ubuntu-Gettext-Domain=gdm
Use any fancy name for your session and replace username
by your name of course.
This will run the script .xsession
in the HOME directory at login where we can put in any appplications we need to start after login.
The script needs to be named as defined in the .desktop file, that is ~/.xsession
in the example given, needs to be made executable and may have a content similar to this:
#! /bin/bash
my-important-app [options] &
second-app [options] &
[...] # add other applications
gnome-session [options]
Options for gnome-session may be omitted to load the default session. Give e.g. --session=classic-gnome
as option to run Classic GNOME Desktop in 11.04.
Next time we login we will have the choice to start a "Marco's Crowded Session" with all applications from the script running in addition to applications from the gnome-session (or any other desktop manager you chose to start here).
Starting other desktop managers
To start another installed desktop manager replace the last line from the ~/.xsession
script with the following:
gnome-session --session=ubuntu
for standard desktop (with Unity in 11.04).gnome-session --session=classic-gnome
for classic GNOME desktop.startkde
for KDE desktop manager.startxfce4
for XFCE, or when running Xubuntu.
12.04 (Unity)
We can add applications to the "Startup Applications" by opening the menu entry on the top panel right side:
14.04 (Unity) and later
We can search the Dash for "startup applications"
or we can run the startup preferences from a terminal with
gnome-session-properties
This will open a window where we can see all installed applications that will run on startup. Tick or untick the applications there or choose "Add" to add a new application:
If we know the command to run the application just enter it here in the "Command" line. We may also add an optional "Comment" here.
If we do not know the command we can choose to "Browse..." our file system for installed applications. Many default applications are found e.g. in /usr/share/application
:
Select an application to add to autostart.
Command line or programmatical approach
Similar to what the GUI solution above does we can manually add a .desktop
file to ~/.config/autostart
. The content of this file may be as follows:
[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Exec=</path/to/binary or command to execute>
Hidden=false
NoDisplay=false
X-GNOME-Autostart-enabled=true
Name=<Name_to_be_displayed>
Comment=<optional comment>
Note that in a vanilla installation the directory ~/.config/autostart
may not yet exist. We need to create it before we can access it programmatically.
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Thanks for the programmatic approach, that's exactly what I was looking for. Aug 27, 2013 at 11:37
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Is this working with Unity desktop or i need Gnome desktop? Cause with Unity in 15.04 its not working.– user25165May 24, 2015 at 21:41
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Is the
~/.config/autostart
portable? The other two look to be supported by the GNOME desktop environment and Unity. Apr 1, 2016 at 14:30 -
1It is available on all X-systems where we had ot specified a different directory spec. See specifications.freedesktop.org/autostart-spec/0.5/ar01s02.html– TakkatApr 1, 2016 at 14:43
If you are using the GNOME Desktop Environment, then this is rather simple to accomplish.
- Go to
System>Preferences>Startup Applications
,
- Now you can either add an application by clicking add,
- And adding the application/script you want to run on startup,
- Or you can add an application by dragging the launcher you wish to add from the Application menu to the Startup Applications screen.
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For Gnome Shell, you have to open it though Ctrl + F2 and typing gnome-session-properties Oct 28, 2013 at 22:14
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Can this be done in Unity desktop?– user25165May 24, 2015 at 21:23
Another, possibly simpler, option would be to go to menu System/Preferences/Startup applications, then choose the "Options" tab and tick "Automatically remember running applications when logging out"
This will start up any applications you have running when you log out.
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+1 but this needs to be handled with care. If one of the apps just running is buggy or crashes the X-Server you may end up with a bad to handle no-fun system (I had that once).– TakkatMar 19, 2011 at 19:08
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Yeah, I admit - that's why I stopped using it too. There is always "gnome-failsafe" session, I suppose, but I couldn't figure out how to recover my crashed session. That was years ago though. Hard to believe it would happen these days.– ScaineMar 19, 2011 at 19:45
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How to get this Options tab in Ubuntu 12.04? there is only one
Startup Programs
one Aug 10, 2012 at 9:26 -
12.04 has removed the "automatically remember" option I show above. You have to search Dash for "Startup Applications" then manually add the entries you want.– ScaineAug 12, 2012 at 22:45
None of the answers (until now) gives a user-independent solution.
The correct way (according to this thread) to add some autorunning program (named a Desktop Entry) for the whole Operating System is adding it as a .desktop
file here:
/etc/xdg/autostart
Example of .desktop
file:
[Desktop Entry]
Name=MyScript
GenericName=A descriptive name
Comment=Some description about your script
Exec=/path/to/my/script.sh
Terminal=false
Type=Application
X-GNOME-Autostart-enabled=true
No need to chmod
it to executable permission, it seems.
The Exec
will run for any logging user, including root
, ubuntu
or xubuntu
(for custom Live distribution desktops)
In 11.04, you press the powerbutton (rightmost on the upper panel) and select System settings. You'll find Startup Applications under Personal preferences. It's the same dialog that we had in earlier versions of Ubuntu.
i guess that you can add the command in System --> Preferences --> app Start
then click add, put a name somthing like "Firefox start" the command name part click
"examine" and look for executable file of the program that you need start at login...restart
hope this help you!!!
regards!!!
Menu > Preferences > Startup Applications
doesn't suit your needs?