Yeah, you shouldn't install Systemd. There were two solutions earlier, one for systems with Systemd and one for those without. I don't know Raspbian and online documentation is poor so I'm guessing.
The non-Systemd solution should be this. But before you do it, check that /etc/inittab exists. If not, post here and we'll take it from there.
(Systemd is a new init system which is a fundamental part of the OS. Some distros have moved to it, some haven't yet. Debian moved to it a while back but it seems Raspbian hasn't caught up yet).
Edit: The root of the problem here is that automatically logging in involves manipulating the init system. And I have no idea what init system Raspbian uses.
Another edit: Ok, found something explicit. Follow this. Just the login bit, don't start LXDE. (It's the same solution as the previous link but this is specific to Raspbian
Ironically, up to September it seems the Raspbian configuration utility (raspi-config) had four login options: GUI requiring login, GUI automatically logged in as 'pi', Console requiring login, Console automatically logged in as 'pi'. My current raspi-config has only three. Guess which option's been chopped?
If I don't need systemd, can I uninstall it without borking what I have got working so far? Is it doing any harm?
"We all have flaws, and mine is being wicked." James Thurber, The Thirteen Clocks 1951
Brill, gotta go out to defend conceptual art on local radio (sigh), but when I get back I'll try installing it. Will it matter that I can't yet autologin to the Raspbian console?
"We all have flaws, and mine is being wicked." James Thurber, The Thirteen Clocks 1951
Yours *must* be using inittab (Sysvinit is the name of the actual init system, inittab is one of its configuration files).
The only two possibilities are Sysvinit or Systemd. When you tried the Systemd way it told you it wasn't installed.
It might be that that documentation is for a newer version of Raspbian than you are using?
>If I don't need systemd, can I uninstall it without borking what I have got working so far? Is it doing any harm?
I'm not entirely sure how you managed to install it without completely breaking everything. Replacing the init system is not the kind of thing you do if you can possibly avoid it, it's a massive thing.
It *may* be that you've arrived at some sort of half-way house with bits of each floating around but I think that's unlikely since I'm pretty sure you wouldn't be able to boot if that were the case. What I think is more likely is that you've installed Systemd but it's not being used. Which is fine, I'd leave it like that (because I'm scared that if you touch it everything is going to come falling down).
I'm *fairly sure* you're using Sysvinit. I'd try the inittab approach and see if that works.
Ok, just checked the Raspbian page and there's a choice of images available. The Jessie ones will be using Systemd while the Wheezy ones will be using Sysvinit.
Assuming they've not backported the kernel (unlikely with Debian) you can check which you're on with:
Code:
uname -r
If the returned number is lower than 4 then you're on Wheezy and thus Sysvinit/inittab. If it's higher than 4 then you're on Jessie with Systemd.
It *might* be that your installation is just fucked somehow. The fact that you couldn't edit that file the other day is kinda worrying in that regard.
But yeah, find out which version you're on. If it's <4 then edit inittab as above. If it's >4 then ... we'll work out what to do with your clearly broken Systemd.
I completely erased the card and reinstalled everything from scratch so everything's tickety-boo.
Yes, it does have inittab after all. After a bit of mucking about I made this change to it and it worked, so thank you very much. I've created an image of the installation with everything working, just in case of disaster.
Now I just have to install Ant's code and (maybe) it's done!
"We all have flaws, and mine is being wicked." James Thurber, The Thirteen Clocks 1951
You *should* now be able to just add the script you want to run to /etc/profile and it should run. That is if you're logging in automatically to a virtual terminal and not using a window manager. Ant's talk of window managers has me confused.
Edit: Although Ant's approach of running it as a daemon will make sure it comes back up if it crashes, which adding it to /etc/profile won't. So it's a better solution.
