Autologin Procedure

[omgomgwtfbbq]

Hello,

I am setting up an Oracle VirtualBox with Ubuntu Server 12.04 using LXDE. The virtualbox is on a password-protected host and does not need its own password-protected login.

What is the procedure for enabling autologin with this setup? All of the procedures that I have found (and I've found quite a variations) either do not work or reference config files that do not exist.

Please note that I have tried all procedures on this forum that I could find by using the search term "autologin."

I will be very grateful for any help on this!

Thank you!

[Rex Bouwense]

Not sure what you have tried because there is a great deal of information on the forum but look at this web site:

http://lxlinux.com/#12

The last sentence tells you how to activate autologin. The site was created and is maintained by a moderator on this forum, seppalta. There is a wealth of information contained there.

[omgomgwtfbbq]

Thank you much for that link, it looks like it will be an excellent resource in general!

Here's the procedure from that link:

"To activate autologin, open (as root) /etc/lxdm/default.conf, /etc/lxdm/lxdm.conf, /etc/xdg/lxdm/lxdm.conf and edit # autologin= to autologin=user-name. Reboot."

I am able to make these edits to the first two listed files, however, the third file (/etc/xdg/lxdm/lxdm.conf) does not exist and neither does the directory /etc/xdg/lxdm.

Rebooting with just the first two files edited results in just a blank screen after the box reboots. After about ten seconds the bar at the bottom of the screen appears but only gives me the "logout" and "run" options. (I keep a snapshot before making changes to the box so that they can be reverted if necessary.)

I should probably add (in case this makes a difference) that the steps that I've taken to set up this box have been as follows:

(1) Install Ubuntu Server 12.04.2 32-bit
(2) apt-get install lxde
(3) apt-get update
(4) apt-get upgrade
(5) apt-get install dkms
(6) sh ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run (in location where guest additions iso was mounted)
(7) Change desktop resolution to auto, set background color to blue, remove desktop image, and disable screensaver (all cosmetic changes made within LXDE)

No other changes or modifications have been made up to this point.

Again, thank you very much!

[Rex Bouwense]

I am going to have to go back to the source.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Lubun ... atic_logon

Since you have 12.04, you will need to follow the second set of instructions.

[omgomgwtfbbq]

Unfortunately, creating the lightdm.conf file in /etc/lightdm/ does not have any effect. On the other hand it does not cause any errors.

I'm attaching a screenshot to show the contents of the file that I created (note that the machine name is Ustinov, the user name is ustinov, ie ustinov@Ustinov.):

[Rex Bouwense]

Well, the picture didn't come out too well. Those instructions are from the Lubuntu people (which of course is Ubuntu with LXDE). I do not understand. OK. I'm going to check Launchpad

[omgomgwtfbbq]

If necessary I can recreate the box from scratch to ensure that I'm working in a completely clean and standardized environment.

In other words what I would do is

(1) Install Ubuntu Server 12.04.2 32-bit
(2) apt-get install lxde
(3) take snapshot of box so that any failed attempts can be reverted to this point

And then do absolutely nothing until the autologin issue is solved.

If this would help or make a difference, please let me know.

UPDATE: I'm actually going to go ahead and create this box.

UPDATE 2: I may be on to something.

[Rex Bouwense]

I would wait until other people have a chance to chime in. There is a lot of info out there and it does take some time to research. If you are going to re-install, I believe that there is an option at install to auto-login. However, since I have never installed a server version I am not sure if that option exists there.

edit: If you do re-install check for the auto-login option.

[omgomgwtfbbq]

I think I've started uncovering the source of confusion (at least mine anyway.) I've learned that when people refer to LXDE, they may be referring to Lubuntu, lightdm, LXDM, or several other possible setups. They are actually all different, though they are all based on LXDE. I've been working with the default setup which one gets with "apt-get install lxde". This is not lubuntu or lightdm (or more precisely, it's not LDXE using lubuntu or lightdm supporting packages.) However, virtually all of the procedures I've found apply to lubuntu or lightdm supporting packages. The default LXDE appears to use lxdm as the default display manager and login. This is different than what lubuntu and lightdm use.

However, editing the lxdm-specific config files (exactly as the instructions inside the config file itself says) makes the system unbootable. The instructions simply say to uncomment the autologin line and put my username in. It's possible that other edits need to be made to the config file to make it work, but I can't find any documentation or discussion of that anywhere. I'm not quite expert enough to figure it out on my own (I have made a few stabs at it though.) So at this point I'm at a loss for enabling autologin on LXDE using lxdm.

I also created a lubuntu box and a lightdm box. The lightdm box was unbootable from the start and really didn't appear to be what I wanted anyway. Lubuntu looks very similar to what I'm used to, but I couldn't get that to work either. I didn't spend too much time troubleshooting lubuntu though since I'm already used to lxdm and I want to stay focused on one desktop manager.

I've learned quite a lot today, and it's all been quite interesting! But autologin still doesn't work! HAHA

N.B. I'm still working on figuring some of this stuff out, so there may be mistakes in the above. For one thing, I think lubuntu may also use lxdm, but there are still differences in the config setups from default LXDE. I'm not sure. Still working on that.

[omgomgwtfbbq]

Alright, it looks like I may be on the right track here.

Here are the two steps I think have been missing:

(1) Delete the password that is currently set with: passwd -d USERNAME

(2) Edit the PAM file to allow for passwordless authentication.

I'll have to work on step 2 tomorrow. This is not something I know much about and my first couple stabs at it haven't quite worked. But this seems to be where the issue is.

This looks like a good resource on it though:
http://www.centos.org/docs/2/rhl-rg-en- ... files.html