Autostarting .desktop application at startup not working

Question

I have read that adding a .desktop file to /etc/xdg/autostart can start an application at startup. I did the same to execute my application. But nothing happens on startup. Following is the content of my .desktop file:

[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Encoding=UTF-8
Version=1.0
Name=screenshot
Exec=/home/anaswara/eclipse_agent/bin/Screenshot
X-GNOME-Autostart-enabled=true
X-KDE-autostart-after=panel

Can anybody tell what is going wrong(Ubunu 14.04)

Is `/home/anaswara/eclipse_agent/bin/Screenshot` an executable and working fine with terminal? or Is this `.desktop` works with normal way? — Pandya, Jan 22 '16 at 05:28
Can you come to [chat-room](http://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/26/dev-chat) for discussion? — Pandya, Jan 22 '16 at 05:34

score 4 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 20 '21 at 16:46

My standard debugging flow for desktop entry file (.desktop application):

file format - check if the desktop entry follow the spec of freedesktop.
executable command - if the previous check looks good, try your command of Exec in a terminal directly.
executable as expected - if the previous check looks good, then double click the .desktop with your mouse.
executing environment - if the previous check looks good, it means your execution command and .desktop should at least run in your desktop environment. Put it under ${HOME}/.config/autostart will definitely work.

[Additional Information]

What if it does still not work with all check passed and .desktop has been in ${HOME}/.config/autostart?
- You may consider to redirect logs from your Exec in .desktop to see what special application behavior raised by your executable.
Why does ${HOME}/.config/autostart work but not /etc/xdg/autostart?
- There are possible root causes. The most common case is that your executable needs to read or manipulate user-specific files/directories/config/cache/environment. For example, an autostart applet wants to write something in $HOME/.cache. Trigger .desktop in $HOME/.config/ will make sure the executable is triggered with a known $HOME.

score 2 · Answer 2 · edited May 15 '17 at 10:20

2

Copy and Paste the .desktop file to /home/'user'/.config/autostart/, e.g. /home/rumi/.config/autostart/app.desktop where rumi is the user and app.desktop is the .desktop file.

Should work fine.

edited May 15 '17 at 10:20

Kusalananda

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answered May 15 '17 at 09:46

smearumi

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how to debug if "should work fine" becomes "doesn't work fine"? – pcnate Oct 29 '17 at 03:45
1

Worked for me on Ubuntu 16.04. Copied some desktop file that chrome created using the "Add to desktop" feature. – AlikElzin-kilaka Mar 26 '18 at 13:10

Autostarting .desktop application at startup not working

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