Start Xorg using init.d script

Question

Do you have a clean/nice way to only start Xorg server under Ubuntu 9.04 and be able to start/stop it? Something like:

# /etc/init.d/xorg start

I have an application that doesn't use a window manager (uses Xorg directly) that starts after boot (Now just uses startx directly). I have an skeleton for it:

case "$1" in
  start)
    echo "Starting xorg... "
    # code for start
    ;;
  stop)
    echo "Stopping xorg..."
    # code for stop
    ;;
  *)
    echo "Usage: /etc/init.d/xorg {start|stop}"
    exit 1
    ;;
esac
exit 0

But it would be nice if somebody can give me a proven (complete) script. Thanks in advance!

Solution 1

Thanks for all the answers.

I solved my problem using the /etc/init.d/skeleton script to call xinit.

#! /bin/sh
# ... Description and comments extracted ...
# Do NOT "set -e"

PATH=/sbin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin
DESC="Xorg server"
NAME=xinit
DAEMON=/usr/bin/$NAME
DAEMON_ARGS="/path/to/.xinitrc"
PIDFILE=/var/run/$NAME.pid
SCRIPTNAME=/etc/init.d/$NAME

# Exit if the package is not installed
[ -x "$DAEMON" ] || exit 0

# Read configuration variable file if it is present
[ -r /etc/default/$NAME ] && . /etc/default/$NAME

# Load the VERBOSE setting and other rcS variables
. /lib/init/vars.sh

# Define LSB log_* functions.
# Depend on lsb-base (>= 3.0-6) to ensure that this file is present.
. /lib/lsb/init-functions

#
# Function that starts the daemon/service
#
do_start()
{
    # Return
    #   0 if daemon has been started
    #   1 if daemon was already running
    #   2 if daemon could not be started
    start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON --test > /dev/null \
        || return 1
    start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON \
        --background --make-pidfile -- \
        $DAEMON_ARGS \
        || return 2
    # Add code here, if necessary, that waits for the process to be ready
    # to handle requests from services started subsequently which depend
    # on this one.  As a last resort, sleep for some time.
}

#
# Function that stops the daemon/service
#
do_stop()
{
    # Return
    #   0 if daemon has been stopped
    #   1 if daemon was already stopped
    #   2 if daemon could not be stopped
    #   other if a failure occurred
    start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --retry=TERM/30/KILL/5 --pidfile $PIDFILE --name $NAME
    RETVAL="$?"
    [ "$RETVAL" = 2 ] && return 2
    # Wait for children to finish too if this is a daemon that forks
    # and if the daemon is only ever run from this initscript.
    # If the above conditions are not satisfied then add some other code
    # that waits for the process to drop all resources that could be
    # needed by services started subsequently.  A last resort is to
    # sleep for some time.
    start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --oknodo --retry=0/30/KILL/5 --exec $DAEMON
    [ "$?" = 2 ] && return 2
    # Many daemons don't delete their pidfiles when they exit.
    rm -f $PIDFILE
    return "$RETVAL"
}

#
# Function that sends a SIGHUP to the daemon/service
#
do_reload() {
    #
    # If the daemon can reload its configuration without
    # restarting (for example, when it is sent a SIGHUP),
    # then implement that here.
    #
    start-stop-daemon --stop --signal 1 --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --name $NAME
    return 0
}

case "$1" in
  start)
    [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_daemon_msg "Starting $DESC" "$NAME"
    do_start
    case "$?" in
        0|1) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 0 ;;
        2) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 1 ;;
    esac
    ;;
  stop)
    [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_daemon_msg "Stopping $DESC" "$NAME"
    do_stop
    case "$?" in
        0|1) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 0 ;;
        2) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 1 ;;
    esac
    ;;
  restart|force-reload)
    #
    # If the "reload" option is implemented then remove the
    # 'force-reload' alias
    #
    log_daemon_msg "Restarting $DESC" "$NAME"
    do_stop
    case "$?" in
      0|1)
        do_start
        case "$?" in
            0) log_end_msg 0 ;;
            1) log_end_msg 1 ;; # Old process is still running
            *) log_end_msg 1 ;; # Failed to start
        esac
        ;;
      *)
        # Failed to stop
        log_end_msg 1
        ;;
    esac
    ;;
  *)
    #echo "Usage: $SCRIPTNAME {start|stop|restart|reload|force-reload}" >&2
    echo "Usage: $SCRIPTNAME {start|stop|restart|force-reload}" >&2
    exit 3
    ;;
esac

:

Then, started applications inside /path/to/.xinitrc

#!/bin/bash

export DISPLAY=':0.0'
# To set a background color
xsetroot -solid gray &
# To show a background logo (qiv should be installed).
qiv /path/to/logo.png &
pid=$!
wait $pid

To start an application independently just export DISPLAY=':0.0' before starting the application.

$ export DISPLAY=':0.0' 
$ myapp 

The application could also be started inside .xinitrc

I hope is useful for someone :)

Solution 2

I've done this before by creating a new .desktop file similar to the ones that start KDE and Gnome that starts my application. Then I configure GDM (usually, KDM used to work as well, haven't used in years) to auto-login to my application's user using my new .desktop file as the session type.

Mostly I use this on MythTV frontends.

Comments

[Govindarajulu]

No, sadly, no. Ubuntu and Debian run at runlevel 2 by default :-) For some reason beyond my knowledge, Debain based distros do not follow the '3 for CLI', '5 for GUI' standards. But this is not what he means, anyway: starting X by doing init 5 (or 2 for Debian) means gdm or kdm start, not plain X.org.

[Humber]

Thanks Christian and Wzzrd. I actually wanted as a init.d script to use it with monit (mmonit.com/monit) and be able to restarted it automatically in case xorg dies for some reason. The monit configuration should be something like this: check process xorg with pidfile "var/run/xorg.pid" start program = "/etc/init.d/xorg start" stop program = "/etc/init.d/xorg stop"

[Humber]

Thanks LapTop006. This is an interesting approach. I'll give it a try to evaluate the differences with the init.d script calling xinit directly.