How to enable auto-login?

Question

So I just installed raspbian jessie lite on my pi 2. But I can't get it to login automatically. I first tried with raspi-config, which didn't work. Then after googling a bit, I found a tutorial which I'm suppose to edit inittab but when I try to access it, it's empty.

Answer 1

I found a solution that uses raspi-config. I played around with it for a bit, and found something (NOTE: You may need to update raspi-config)

To enable Auto-login with raspi-config:

Run: sudo raspi-config
Choose option: 1 System Options
Choose option: S5 Boot / Auto Login
Choose option: B2 Console Autologin
Select Finish, and reboot the Raspberry Pi.

You should then be logged in automatically on every reboot. It's as easy as pi! :)

Answer 2

I needed to know how to do this manually, not using raspi-config. I couldn't find anyone sharing the secret sauce. Thank Stallman for open source. Just read the source.

do_boot_behaviour() {
  if [ "$INTERACTIVE" = True ]; then
    BOOTOPT=$(whiptail --title "Raspberry Pi Software Configuration Tool (raspi-config)" --menu "Boot Options" $WT_HEIGHT $WT_WIDTH $WT_MENU_HEIGHT \
      "B1 Console" "Text console, requiring user to login" \
      "B2 Console Autologin" "Text console, automatically logged in as '$USER' user" \
      "B3 Desktop" "Desktop GUI, requiring user to login" \
      "B4 Desktop Autologin" "Desktop GUI, automatically logged in as '$USER' user" \
      3>&1 1>&2 2>&3)
  else
    BOOTOPT=$1
    true
  fi
  if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
    case "$BOOTOPT" in
      B1*)
        systemctl set-default multi-user.target
        ln -fs /lib/systemd/system/[email protected] /etc/systemd/system/getty.target.wants/[email protected]
        rm -f /etc/systemd/system/[email protected]/autologin.conf
        ;;
      B2*)
        systemctl set-default multi-user.target
        ln -fs /lib/systemd/system/[email protected] /etc/systemd/system/getty.target.wants/[email protected]
        cat > /etc/systemd/system/[email protected]/autologin.conf << EOF
[Service]
ExecStart=
ExecStart=-/sbin/agetty --autologin $USER --noclear %I \$TERM
EOF
        ;;
      B3*)
        if [ -e /etc/init.d/lightdm ]; then
          systemctl set-default graphical.target
          ln -fs /lib/systemd/system/[email protected] /etc/systemd/system/getty.target.wants/[email protected]
          rm -f /etc/systemd/system/[email protected]/autologin.conf
          sed /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf -i -e "s/^autologin-user=.*/#autologin-user=/"
          disable_raspi_config_at_boot
        else
          whiptail --msgbox "Do 'sudo apt-get install lightdm' to allow configuration of boot to desktop" 20 60 2
          return 1
        fi
        ;;
      B4*)
        if [ -e /etc/init.d/lightdm ]; then
          systemctl set-default graphical.target
          ln -fs /lib/systemd/system/[email protected] /etc/systemd/system/getty.target.wants/[email protected]
          cat > /etc/systemd/system/[email protected]/autologin.conf << EOF

What I learned from this is that my changes to /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf were not affecting my autologin as expected because I was missing a file called /etc/systemd/system/[email protected]/autologin.conf

The critical missing step is this one:

cat > /etc/systemd/system/[email protected]/autologin.conf << EOF
[Service]
ExecStart=
ExecStart=-/sbin/agetty --autologin $USER --noclear %I \$TERM
EOF

Which will be set to the username that raspi-config wants, not the one that you want. So you have to change the $USER in /etc/systemd/system/[email protected]/autologin.conf to match the username you are setting in the /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf parameter autologin-user

Answer 3

First create a new service similar to [email protected]:

# cp /lib/systemd/system/[email protected] \
     /etc/systemd/system/[email protected] 

# ln -s /etc/systemd/system/[email protected] \
        /etc/systemd/system/getty.target.wants/[email protected]

then edit ExecStart, Restart and Alias values, like this:

...
ExecStart=-/sbin/mingetty --autologin USERNAME %I
Restart=no
...
Alias=getty.target.wants/[email protected]

and finally reload daemon and start the service:

systemctl daemon-reload systemctl start [email protected]

Note that if you exit tty8 session, you wont be able to use it until next reboot or manual start by systemctl, except if you leave Restart as ‘always’, but I highly recommend to avoid this according to security reasons.

---

source: fedoraproject.org/wiki

Answer 4

The simplest way I have found using Raspbian, is to edit the raspi-config file. Do this by opening /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf and setting the autologin-user= parameter.

Change: autologin-user=pi to autologin-user=username where username is your username.