open a terminal on boot and auto-run a looping python script

Question

When my RPI3 is booted, I would like it to automatically have the terminal open with my python script already running. Note that it loops endlessly. I want to open the terminal so I check the output my script produces.

I have searched ways that auto-runs python scripts on boots. I have tried putting python /home/pi/Desktop/pythonfile.py $ on /etc/rc.local but it just runs in the background and doesn't open a terminal.

What I also tried to do was use lxterminal. In /etc/rc.local, I put sudo /home/pi/Desktop/bashfile.sh &. Then the contents of bashfile.sh were:

#!bin/bash/

lxterminal --command="/bin/bash -c '/home/pi/Desktop/pythonfile.py; /bin/bash'"

When I try to manually run the bashfile.sh, the lxterminal opens and run the python script. However, when I rebooted, it doesn't open a terminal.

Any suggestions to this? Thanks.

Answer 1

Is it sufficient for you redirecting the output of the script to a file? You can tail the file to see the real-time output of the script. If so run the script with python myscript.py >& /var/log/myscript.log. It will write the output(stdin/stderr) on file named /var/log/myscript.log.

I think, currently, starting lxterminal in rc.local will not work because the X server is not ready yet.

Depending on your DM you have a file (often called autostart) and you have to put the lxterminal line in it (if you are using LXDE look at this link https://wiki.lxde.org/en/Autostart)

Answer 2

Add a line to the default Raspbian autostart file /home/pi/.config/lxsession/LXDE-pi/autostart:

@lxterminal -e /home/pi/Desktop/pythonfile.py should start your script assuming you made it executable and it contains a valid shebang.