[mythtv-users] Using gdm for automatic login/re-login

[Shawn Asmussen]

When I setup my MythTV box, I searched through the list looking for
suggestions on the best way to setup mythfrontend to automatically
startup. I found several ways, including using the automatic login feature
of gdm of kdm. However the ways described will only login the mythtv user
the first time after startup, and if mythfrontend crashes or the user
exits the frontend, you have to re-login via the keyboard.

After looking into it more, I found the timed login feature of gdm, which
I think is very well suited for a mythtv box. Here is the section from my
gdm.conf file:

# Timed login, useful for kiosks.  Log in a certain user after a certain
# amount of time
TimedLoginEnable=true
TimedLogin=mythtv
TimedLoginDelay=5

This logs in the mythtv user after 5 seconds if you don't login manually,
and has the advantage of working every time the system ends up at the
login screen, so it will re-login as mythtv if the frontend crashes for
some reason. Also, the 5 second delay is useful, so that if you want to
login as another user to do some sort of maintenance, you can exit
mythfrontend, and then you have 5 seconds to login as root or another user
before it logs back in as mythtv.

Of course, you still need to have an .xinitrc or .Xclients, or whatever
makes sense for your distro. I have an .Xclients-default that starts up
fvwm and mythfrontend.

Shawn Asmussen