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I am trying to run two Python programs at reboot with my Raspberry Pi 3. The problem is that crontab doesn't run at reboot.

I tried to run the programs with crontab every 5 minutes and everything went correct.

This is working:

*/5 * * * * python /home/pi/Desktop/Telegram/pyTelegramBotAPI/ComandosRes.py
*/5 * * * * sudo python /home/pi/Desktop/Telegram/pyTelegramBotAPI/Correo+.py

This is not working:

@reboot sudo python /home/pi/Desktop/Telegram/pyTelegramBotAPI/Correo+.py
@reboot python /home/pi/Desktop/Telegram/pyTelegramBotAPI/ComandosRes.py

Any idea or suggestion is welcomed. Thanks in advance!

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  • Since we don't know the script content, it's not clear if this matters, but you list the programs in a different order between the two cases. Does one depend on the other? (If so, you should make a better fix than just the order here, but the order might matter.)
    – Brick
    Sep 18, 2017 at 13:46

1 Answer 1

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The Debian stretch manpage for cron notes the following:

Please note that startup, as far as @reboot is concerned, may be before some system daemons, or other facilities, were startup. This is due to the boot order sequence of the machine.

You could try adding a sleep duration to the start of your script, or possibly launching it later in the boot process using systemd. Here's an example of a service file I've used to launch after networking is up and running, and with a 10 second safety buffer:

  1. Create /etc/systemd/system/yourname.service containing:

    [Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

[Unit]
Description=Example service
Wants=network-online.target
After=network-online.target

[Service]
User=youruser
Group=yourgroup
ExecStart=/path/to/your/script.py
ExecStartPre=/bin/sleep 10
Type=simple

[Timer]
OnStartupSec=25

  2. Enable the service with systemctl enable yourname.

  3. Start the service with systemctl start yourname.
  4. Verify proper startup with systemctl status yourname.

There is a lot more to systemd, but hopefully this will get you started. Note that this completely replaces the cron @reboot and/or /etc/rc.local approaches which don't provide as much control over when services are launched.

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  • Thanks for answering. I will try it tomorrow and I will comment something. Thanks again.
    – Andermutu
    Sep 18, 2017 at 13:52
  • @Andermutu I just went through something similar. The problem was a script launching before the network was fully ready at reboot. I wound up fixing it by adding "ExecStartPre=/bin/sleep 10" to the .service file I installed via systemd. For some reason, "After=network-online.target" was not sufficient. You might add some network-readiness checks to your script rather than just adding delays. To do this "properly", you might want to read up on systemd rather than cron.
    – bobstro
    Sep 18, 2017 at 15:12
  • Thanks again for your help bobstro. This days I have very little time to try it. As soon as I have time I will try it and I will accept your answer and give you positive mark. Thanks!
    – Andermutu
    Sep 19, 2017 at 20:22
  • Hello Bobstro; I am trying to implement your solution but I dont understand exactly were I have to add "ExecStartPre=/bin/sleep 10". Do I have to add it in my Crontab file, Pyhton file or do I have to create a file in systemd?Thanks and sorry, I am a begginer.
    – Andermutu
    Sep 21, 2017 at 15:08
  • Better is to determine where in the startup process you want your program to launch and use Wants= and After= lines. If you find that you still have problems, you can insert a short delay with ExecStartPre=/bin/sleep 10 under the [Service] block. I'll edit my answer to include more detail.
    – bobstro
    Sep 21, 2017 at 15:27

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