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

First create a new service similar to getty@.service:

# cp /lib/systemd/system/getty@.service \
     /etc/systemd/system/autologin@.service 

# ln -s /etc/systemd/system/autologin@.service \
        /etc/systemd/system/getty.target.wants/getty@tty8.service

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

...
ExecStart=-/sbin/mingetty --autologin USERNAME %I
Restart=no
...
Alias=getty.target.wants/getty@tty8.service

and finally reload daemon and start the service:

systemctl daemon-reload systemctl start getty@tty8.service

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 3

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.

Answer 4

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/getty@.service /etc/systemd/system/getty.target.wants/getty@tty1.service
        rm -f /etc/systemd/system/getty@tty1.service.d/autologin.conf
        ;;
      B2*)
        systemctl set-default multi-user.target
        ln -fs /lib/systemd/system/getty@.service /etc/systemd/system/getty.target.wants/getty@tty1.service
        cat > /etc/systemd/system/getty@tty1.service.d/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/getty@.service /etc/systemd/system/getty.target.wants/getty@tty1.service
          rm -f /etc/systemd/system/getty@tty1.service.d/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/getty@.service /etc/systemd/system/getty.target.wants/getty@tty1.service
          cat > /etc/systemd/system/getty@tty1.service.d/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/getty@tty1.service.d/autologin.conf

The critical missing step is this one:

cat > /etc/systemd/system/getty@tty1.service.d/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/getty@tty1.service.d/autologin.conf to match the username you are setting in the /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf parameter autologin-user