How to set my Raspberry Pi to boot into the GUI?

Question

As from my previous question, I asked what the power off button in the corner does. Then somebody said if you boot into the GUI automatically, it will give you some options.

How do I boot into the GUI at startup?

Answer 1

Assuming that you are using Raspbian, it is actually rather simple to do what you ask. Simply open the terminal, and type in the following:

sudo raspi-config

The following window should show up

Navigate to boot_behaviour and click enter. This should make it so that the GUI interface starts automatically.

Answer 2

If you are using Arch Linux, please install the X11 server. Follow the steps in Archlinux Beginners Guide first. And install your favorite WM.

1. Add thise lines to your ~/.xinitrc:

   #!/bin/sh
   #
   # ~/.xinitrc
   #
   # Executed by startx (run your window manager from here)
   
   if [ -d /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d ]; then
      for f in /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d/*; do
       [ -x "$f" ] && . "$f"
      done
      unset f
   fi
   exec openbox-session ## I'm using window manager Openbox (<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Openbox>)
   #exec awesome
   

2. Start X when logging in. Add the following to the bottom of ~/.bash_profile if you use bash. Or ~/.zprofile if you're are using zsh. See more on the Arch Linux Wiki.

   [[ -z $DISPLAY && $XDG_VTNR -eq 1 ]] && exec startx