Automatically start python program at start-up

Question

I am working on a project that needs a special GUI that takes up the full screen.

I know I can make the X-Window system start up on boot (using raspi-config then changing the setting) but is it possible to just load the bare minimum to display the GUI (created in Glade) and then automatically start the python script? I don't want to display the desktop ever, as it is a type of Virtual Operating System.

Answer 1

Drawing directly on the screen (frame buffer) is actually much faster than using X when you are using Broadcom's VideoCore (OpenVG) library. The major resources you need to look at, including examples and source code, are already pre-installed on Rapsberry Pi. For example, try this in console mode:

cd /opt/vc/src/hello_pi/hello_triangle
sudo make
./hello_triangle

You will see a full screen GUI is shown. You may also want to look at a very nice wrapper library that makes using OpenVG much easier, which includes additional very nice examples.

For starting up a program automatically, you can add it in your /etc/rc.local file, just before exit 0, like this:

#....
if [ "$_IP" ]; then
  printf "My IP address is %s\n" "$_IP"
fi

/your/path/your_fancy_gui &>/dev/null &

exit 0

Note you need to use & to put the program in the background, or the system boot sequence would be stopped there until you program quits.

Answer 2

You need some kind of window manager to have a GUI. You could make a text based UI instead! (ncurses may be helpful)

Answer 3

You don't need a window manager, or even X.

I'm starting up to the console and running a program via auto-login. The program simply draws the GUI on the framebuffer.