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Asked: 2013-05-01 03:50:15 +0800 CST

Can startup applications be run on the login screen stack without logging in?

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I'm going to set up my computer to be turned on at night and it will automatically start downloading. For security reasons, I do not want to set up Ubuntu to automatically login. The problem is the login screen where I need to type the password manually to enter.

When do applications in start up run? From the login screen's appearance or from the desktop veing drawn?

Is the software on this list able to run from the login screen (without the user entering the desktop by password), when they have been placed in startup applications?

LIST: crontab, aria2c, transmission-gtk, shutdown, uGet, xdman

lightdm

2 Answers

  1. Global cron runs regardless of login. Per user crontab only runs after login.

    Transmission can be run as a service like someone already asked here.

    It sounds to me like you're trying to run a seedbox off of Ubuntu mainline. Don't. Just use a seedbox VM image like this.

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  2. User systemd service can run without the user to login. What is your ubuntu version ? Does it run systemd ?

    So the feature is called lingering and is enabled by running

    loginctl enable-linger yourusername

    Then you place your systemd .service file in ~/.config/systemd/user

    You could make a shell script that will run what you want and run that script from that user systemd service.

    You could even use systemd cron facility to run it at specific date/time. Use a .timer systemd file then

    Enable this/those service(s) and start them with (for example one called dl here)

    systemctl --user enable dl.service
systemctl --user start dl.service

    Reference: Arch Linux wiki

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