Using openbox to autostart GUI application Raspberry Pi 3

Question

I'm trying to use openbox to customize my raspberry pi 3. Basically, what I want to do is start an openbox session on boot up and have openbox autostart a GUI application. This is what I have so far

in ~/.config/lxsession/LXDE-pi/autostart

I commented out the first 3 lines:

#@lxpanel --profile LXDE-pi
#@pcmanfm --desktop --profile LXDE-pi
#@xscreensaver -no-splash

and added this line:

@openbox-session

This causes openbox to start when I boot up my system. I see a black screen

Following this guide: http://openbox.org/wiki/Help:Autostart It says that

"When you log in with the "Openbox" session type, or launch Openbox with the openbox-session command, the environment script will be executed to set up your environment, and the autostart script can launch any applications you want to run at startup."

so, I edited the autostart file in ~/.config/openbox/autostart in my pi user. (I also tried editing the global file) I put this in the file:

/home/pi/mystartupprogram

On first reboot it worked my GUI starts up which is great but...next reboot I'm back to black screen and I see part of my GUI in the top left corner and all the rest is black.

• Adam Plocher: Hi did you ever solve this? I'm researching the most light-weight possible way to create a kiosk that will show a web page with possible image transitions (dakboard.com specifically). I would like to use a Pi Zero W so it's gotta be REALLY light. I wish someone had an opengl or framebuffer driven browser that could run from the GPU from the terminal (graphical - not lynx)

Answer 1

This is the simple answer: sudo update-alternatives --config x-session-manager One can just run this and select the openbox-session then the next restart will get you the openbox window manager. No need for hacking files etc.

• Greenonline: Can you edit and expand upon your answer, else it may be deleted. Stack Exchange is looking for comprehensive answers.
• CoderChris: This answer doesn't need any more explaination this is the best way to switch to an alternative window manager on a raspberry pi
• Dmitry Grigoryev: This is the right answer: if the OP will ever want to go back to lxsession, or have to reconfigure a system after reinstalling it, doing manual changes in a bunch of config files will take lots of time.
• sshow: Instead of rebooting, restarting the display manager should be sufficient. sudo systemctl restart display-manager.service
• Patronics: what reasons might there be for this change to not take effect? Running this command, selecting openbox-session and rebooting still booted me into the full lxde desktop, rather than openbox

Answer 2

I had the same problem. I post it for any future googlers.

---

1. Disable Desktop autologin

   Run sudo raspi-config and navigate to 3 Boot Options / B1 Desktop / Cliand choose B2 Console Autologin

2. Run startx in rc.local

   Open rc.local with sudo nano /etc/rc.local. At the end, before exit 0 add startx &

3. Configure xinitrc

   sudo nano /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc
   

   Comment this line

   . /etc/X11/xsession
   

   Add this line to start openbox

   exec openbox-session
   

4. Run your programs with autostart

   sudo nano /etc/xdg/openbox/autostart
   

   Add your commands

   /path/to/program &
   

   Important: End all commands with &

---

Voilà, you have now an Raspberry Pi that automatically boots to Openbox and autostarts your applications

• Michael B.: Worked perfect, but I've used the following part in ~/.bash_profile: [[ -z $DISPLAY && $XDG_VTNR -eq 1 ]] && startx (instead of the rc.local part)

Answer 3

I found this to be useful

install the rpi lite version then:
sudo apt install lightdm openbox
lightdm = login manager, just use raspi-config to select autologin gui
openbox = gui to run your app

you can use a tty for command line to setup your app to auto start:
example:
mkdir ~/.config/autostart
nano ~/.config/autostart/my_app.desktop

in nano:
[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Exec=/path/to/my/app <-best to use full path ex: /home/pi/bin/my_app