How to auto login and startx without a display manager in Debian
Posted by Admin on December 23rd, 2008
Method 1
First you need to edit the /etc/inittab file
#nano /etc/inittab
look for the following line
1:2345:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty1
and commentout
#1:2345:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty1
add the following line
1:2345:respawn:/bin/login -f YOUR_USER_NAME tty1 </dev/tty1 >/dev/tty1 2>&1
Save and exit the file
Now you need to edit .bash_profile and at the bottom add the following command and save
startx
Method 2
First install rungetty using the following command
#apt-get install rungetty
you need to edit the /etc/inittab file
#nano /etc/inittab
look for the following line
comment out
#1:2345:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty1
and add
1:2345:respawn:/sbin/rungetty tty1
--autologin YOUR_USER_NAME
edit .bash_profile and at the bottom add
if [ -z "$DISPLAY" ] && [ $(tty) = /dev/tty1 ]; then
while true
do
startx--
sleep 10
done
fi
March 18th, 2009 at 4:13 pm
Method 2:
while; true
do
You forgot about `;` after “while”.
July 25th, 2009 at 12:12 pm
Great, I had a hunch you could do this and so happy you can. Method 1 worked perfectly, thank you.
January 13th, 2010 at 5:03 pm
Sorry, but neither of these methods work on my Debian machine. I wish I could elaborate on why, but I am not familiar enough with these lower level workings. Could be that I am still using Etch.
For method 1: It booted normally and prompted me to login at the graphical interface as usual. I logged in on the account chosen for the example and several of the gnome panel applets crashed.
For method 2: It booted normally and prompted me to login at the graphical interface as usual. I logged in on the account chosen for the example and the GUI hung and I had to undo the changes in the console.
August 8th, 2010 at 11:08 am
Hi, My keyboard input won’t work when I modify my inittab with “1:2345:respawn:/bin/login -f YOUR_USER_NAME tty1 /dev/tty1 2>&1″, what could i be doing wrong? I’m not starting X, all I want is autologin leaving me in a terminal.