Getting Xvfb to start upon booting system in Ubuntu Maverick

Question

I'm trying to get Xvfb to run when the system starts up on Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick), but it's not working. In /etc/rc.local, I have the following:

/root/start_xvfb.sh >> /var/log/start_xvfb.log 2>&1
exit 0

And in /root/start_xvfb.sh I have:

#!/bin/sh -e
startx -- `which Xvfb` :0 -screen 0 1024x768x24 &
exit 0

After rebooting the machine, the log file (/var/log/start_xvfb.log) contains:

[dix] Could not init font path element /usr/share/fonts/X11/cyrillic, removing from list!
^M
waiting for X server to shut down
^M

Given that content in the log file, it seems like the call to "startx -- `which Xvfb` :0 -screen 0 1024x768x24" is being made, but the process is killed soon thereafter.

I want to start Xvfb on boot because I need to run Firefox on a remote server that doesn't have a monitor display. If I run /etc/rc.local after SSH'ing to the remote machine, Xvfb starts without a problem and I can launch Firefox via "firefox --display=:0 &". If I try to run Firefox using that command without first starting Xvfb, I get the message "Error: cannot open display: :0".

Note that I am not trying to actually see the display on my local workstation. I want the application to display on the remote machine's (virtual, in memory) display.

Any ideas why X server is shutting down on the remote machine immediately after it starts? Is there a better way to have Xvfb start upon system boot?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Answer 1

I suppose the shell TERMs it when it exits, which would be immediately, due to the '&'. Maybe you want to use start-stop-daemon? E.g:

start-stop-daemon --start -b -x /usr/bin/Xvfb :1

I suppose if you want the help of the startx wrapper, you may want to run your shellscript instead.

Answer 2

You can use my init script. It's based on /etc/init.d/skeleton and seems to work well:

#! /bin/sh
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides:          Xvfb
# Required-Start:    $remote_fs $syslog
# Required-Stop:     $remote_fs $syslog
# Default-Start:     2 3 4 5
# Default-Stop:      0 1 6
# Short-Description: Start Xvfb.
# Description:       Start the X virtual framebuffer.
### END INIT INFO

# Author: Hannes Brandstaetter-Mueller <[email protected]>
#
# Please remove the "Author" lines above and replace them
# with your own name if you copy and modify this script.

# Do NOT "set -e" 

# PATH should only include /usr/* if it runs after the mountnfs.sh script
PATH=/sbin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin
DESC="X virtual framebuffer" 
NAME="Xvfb" 
DAEMON=/usr/bin/$NAME
DAEMON_ARGS=":1 -screen 0 640x480x24" 
PIDFILE=/var/run/$NAME.pid
SCRIPTNAME=/etc/init.d/$NAME

# Exit if the package is not installed
[ -x "$DAEMON" ] || exit 0

# Read configuration variable file if it is present
[ -r /etc/default/$NAME ] && . /etc/default/$NAME

# Load the VERBOSE setting and other rcS variables
. /lib/init/vars.sh

# Define LSB log_* functions.
# Depend on lsb-base (>= 3.0-6) to ensure that this file is present.
. /lib/lsb/init-functions

#
# Function that starts the daemon/service
#
do_start()
{
        # Return
        #   0 if daemon has been started
        #   1 if daemon was already running
        #   2 if daemon could not be started
        start-stop-daemon --start --background --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON --test > /dev/null \
                || return 1
        start-stop-daemon --start --background --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON -- \
                $DAEMON_ARGS \
                || return 2
        # Add code here, if necessary, that waits for the process to be ready
        # to handle requests from services started subsequently which depend
        # on this one.  As a last resort, sleep for some time.
}

#
# Function that stops the daemon/service
#
do_stop()
{
        # Return
        #   0 if daemon has been stopped
        #   1 if daemon was already stopped
        #   2 if daemon could not be stopped
        #   other if a failure occurred
        start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --retry=TERM/30/KILL/5 --pidfile $PIDFILE --name $NAME
        RETVAL="$?" 
        [ "$RETVAL" = 2 ] && return 2
        # Wait for children to finish too if this is a daemon that forks
        # and if the daemon is only ever run from this initscript.
        # If the above conditions are not satisfied then add some other code
        # that waits for the process to drop all resources that could be
        # needed by services started subsequently.  A last resort is to
        # sleep for some time.
        start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --oknodo --retry=0/30/KILL/5 --exec $DAEMON
        [ "$?" = 2 ] && return 2
        # Many daemons don't delete their pidfiles when they exit.
        rm -f $PIDFILE
        return "$RETVAL" 
}

#
# Function that sends a SIGHUP to the daemon/service
#
do_reload() {
        #
        # If the daemon can reload its configuration without
        # restarting (for example, when it is sent a SIGHUP),
        # then implement that here.
        #
        start-stop-daemon --stop --signal 1 --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --name $NAME
        return 0
}

case "$1" in
  start)
        [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_daemon_msg "Starting $DESC" "$NAME" 
        do_start
        case "$?" in
                0|1) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 0 ;;
                2) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 1 ;;
        esac
        ;;
  stop)
        [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_daemon_msg "Stopping $DESC" "$NAME" 
        do_stop
        case "$?" in
                0|1) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 0 ;;
                2) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 1 ;;
        esac
        ;;
  status)
       status_of_proc "$DAEMON" "$NAME" && exit 0 || exit $?
       ;;
  #reload|force-reload)
        #
        # If do_reload() is not implemented then leave this commented out
        # and leave 'force-reload' as an alias for 'restart'.
        #
        #log_daemon_msg "Reloading $DESC" "$NAME" 
        #do_reload
        #log_end_msg $?
        #;;
  restart|force-reload)
        #
        # If the "reload" option is implemented then remove the
        # 'force-reload' alias
        #
        log_daemon_msg "Restarting $DESC" "$NAME" 
        do_stop
        case "$?" in
          0|1)
                do_start
                case "$?" in
                        0) log_end_msg 0 ;;
                        1) log_end_msg 1 ;; # Old process is still running
                        *) log_end_msg 1 ;; # Failed to start
                esac
                ;;
          *)
                # Failed to stop
                log_end_msg 1
                ;;
        esac
        ;;
  *)
        #echo "Usage: $SCRIPTNAME {start|stop|restart|reload|force-reload}" >&2
        echo "Usage: $SCRIPTNAME {start|stop|status|restart|force-reload}" >&2
        exit 3
        ;;
esac

put that in /etc/init.d/xvfbd and then run

sudo update-rc.d xvfbd defaults

Now it should auto-run on boot.