Creating a systemd unit that runs when Dom0 user logs in (NOT merely when boot up completes)

[daltong defourne]

Hello community!

I need to achieve the following:

A systemd unit that fires ONLY when user first logs in (not when bootup complete, so rc.local does not achieve what I want)

And, related need, I want to be able to determine if a particular VM is already running.

What I want to achieve:

sequential VM startup that does not rely on "start automatically" facilities of Qubes R3.2, that only fires after user logs in, and then starts a shell script that does the following:

1) check if a particular autostarty VM is already running (timeout and self-terminate with error if it is not running for 30 seconds after login)

2) when the VM is detected as running start VM2

3) wait for it to start, re-check for its running status (as in point 1)

4) start VM 3

Help very appreciated :)

[Ivan Mitev]

Hey,

On 03/24/2018 08:20 PM, daltong defourne wrote:
> Hello community!
>
> I need to achieve the following:
>
> A systemd unit that fires ONLY when user first logs in (not when bootup complete, so rc.local does not achieve what I want)

Found that (didn't even know that was possible):

https://superuser.com/questions/1037466/how-to-start-a-systemd-service-after-user-login-and-stop-it-before-user-logout/1269158

I usually start stuff after logon with:
- the WM's autostart feature ( $HOME/.config/autostart/blah.desktop )
- or a system-wide .desktop file in /etc/xdg/autostart

I haven't tested if you can start systemd units from such scripts though
(issues with namespaces ?) but what you describe below can be achieved
with simple qvm-* commands.

[Steve Coleman]

If you are using lightdm you might look at the "session-setup-script"
setting and see if it can handle what you want. I have mine prompting
the user with a simple zenity dialog at logon, but yours is a bit more
complicated, so your mileage my vary significantly. Mine appears to
block processing to wait for a user action but yours could take a
significant amount of time during VM start up, but it may be acceptable
in your specific usec-ase.

/usr/share/lightdm/lightdm.conf.d/*.conf

$ grep session-setup-script \
/usr/share/lightdm/lightdm.conf.d/60-lightdm-gtk-greeter.conf

session-setup-script=/usr/local/bin/do-what-i-want-script