execute script before login

Question

Whole day I'm facing a startup script problem.

What I'm looking for is a way to run a single script at boot/before login that will configure my machine and run proper services. (Single script for all users would be cool - easy maintenance)

simple script "/machineSetup.sh"

#LC_NUMERIC - Specifies the decimal delimiter
export LC_NUMERIC="en_US.UTF-8"
#-------------------------------------------------------------------
#add custom aliases path 
export PATH=$PATH:/home/user/aliases
#-------------------------------------------------------------------
#run backburnerServer (tool to control remote computing) run process
/usr/discreet/backburner/backburnerServer &
#-------------------------------------------------------------------
#run x11vnc run process 
/usr/bin/x11vnc &

I'm on Ubuntu14.04. I already did tests with /etc/rc.local no luck at all. I tried /etc/profile.d/machineSetup.sh but it works only after login.

Would be cool if you can give me any hints. Is it possible at all to store configuration inside single file Thanks in advance for suggestions!

Solution

You may start any script from

/etc/rc.local

Better you create an upstart .conf file. These are stored in

/etc/init/*.conf

As an example, here are the contents of the file /etc/init/hostname.conf:

#
# This task is run on startup to set the system hostname from     /etc/hostname,
# falling back to "localhost" if that file is not readable or is empty     and
# no hostname has yet been set.

description     "set system hostname"

start on startup

task
exec hostname -b -F /etc/hostname

Another solution is using the crontab feature @reboot, find out more about crontab here

Comments

[Admin]

What is your purpose for starting x11vnc? Are you actually trying to provide remote VNC access to the display manager / login prompt, or do you really just want x11vnc to relay an established user session (i.e. 'desktop sharing')? Either way, "boot time" is not the place to do that.

[Admin]

Well , are we talking about starting this script for GUI or command line ? If we're talking both, you might want to add a check of whether or not this script is already been running , in order to avoid running it multiple times, if you choose to go through .profile route. Second thing, it may run in /etc/rc.local, but it runs as root, without any connection to GUI. So I am doubting it would be altering anyting . I would suggest you use /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf to link this with GUI and also avoid spawning multiple instances

[Admin]

@steeldriver That's what i'm trying to do. I need to start backburnerServer without need to provide login info.

[Admin]

This one worked for me http://askubuntu.com/questions/243044/why-isnt-rc-local-exec‌​uted

[bolek]

Thanks! Sure, but it works only after login. So it doesn't work for me.

[bolek]

Thanks! but please check commentu under cmks answer.