[solved] Trying to get a tmux-enabled terminal using my .xinitrc

MoonSwan · 2014-07-07 23:01:10

I'm trying to get whatever terminal I use to open with a tmux session. The session, if already running, should just be re-attached to my previous session (that is still running in the background) when I open a terminal window in SnapWM. I got this command from somewhere on this forum and it works on my netbook but refuses to budge on the desktop.

# Use this command as the last line in .xinitrc
# Attach to an tmux session that is in-progress OR
# Start a new session within your preferred terminal replacing xfce4-terminal with - for example:
# lxterminal -e ...

qterminal -e bash -c "tmux -q has-session && exec tmux attach-session -d || exec tmux new-session -n$USER -s$USER@$HOSTNAME" &&
###

What really confuses me is that this works on the netbook with a functionally identical .bashrc file. The only difference between both .bashrc's is that the netbook has Synaptic options in it and I removed references to Nvidia driver tweaks.

The full .bashrc is here:

#!/bin/sh
#
# ~/.xinitrc
#
# Executed by startx (run your window manager from here)

if [ -d /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d ]; then
  for f in /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d/*; do
   [ -x "$f" ] && . "$f"
  done
  unset f
fi

###

xset +fp /usr/share/fonts/local/  # Prepend a custom font path to Xorg's list of known font paths
xset fp rehash

## Resets the default X cursor
xsetroot -cursor_name left_ptr &

## For a dramatic 2D graphics performance increase in pixmap-intensive applications, e.g. Firefox,
## set the InitialPixmapPlacement parameter to 2:

nvidia-settings -a InitialPixmapPlacement=2 &

## use customisations from the nvidia-generated file in your home directory

nvidia-settings --load-config-only &

## To have the touchpad disabled automatically when you begin typing
#syndaemon -t -k -i 2 -d &

###
## Used to enable anti-aliased fonts primarily for LibreOffice.  See .bashrc for the "xrdb -merge ~/.Xresources &" counter-part to this code
Xft.lcdfilter: lcddefault

# Start SnapWM with startx
exec snapwm
sh ~/scripts/wallpaper.sh &

## Force LibreOffice Writer to use a gtk/gtk3/kde4/generic UI uncomment one of these:
#SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN=gtk lowriter
#SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN=gtk3 lowriter
#SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN=gen lowriter
SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN=kde4 lowriter

# Use this command as the last line in .xinitrc
# Attach to an tmux session that is in-progress OR
# Start a new session within your preferred terminal replacing xfce4-terminal with - for example:
# lxterminal -e ...

qterminal -e bash -c "tmux -q has-session && exec tmux attach-session -d || exec tmux new-session -n$USER -s$USER@$HOSTNAME" &&
###

Equally frustrating is my wallpaper script won't start-up either. That will have to wait for another post though.

TIA

edit: changed subject line to .xinitrc instead of the incorrect .bashrc.

Last edited by MoonSwan (2014-07-08 23:41:48)

jasonwryan · 2014-07-07 23:14:27

That is your .xinitrc file, not your .bashrc file.

Nothing after the exec call gets read from .xinitrc.

MoonSwan · 2014-07-08 00:06:23

Gah! Wow go me. *sigh* I feel like an idiot. Thanks JasonWRyan.

jasonwryan · 2014-07-08 00:10:30

No problem; there are a number of one liners for .bashrc that will start any interactive shell in a new or pre-existing tmux session. A quick search on guthub should throw up what you need.

MoonSwan · 2014-07-08 00:16:17

jasonwryan wrote:

No problem; there are a number of one liners for .bashrc that will start any interactive shell in a new or pre-existing tmux session. A quick search on guthub should throw up what you need.

OK so these one-liners will work for terminals within X?

I think I have a multi-liner that does work on the command line. It will start a new tmux session, or attach to one already started, when I log in at the console. I don't use this because then I forget it's a tmux session and then do a "startx" from within the tmux session which, as far as I know, is a bad idea.

 # ~/.bashrc
###
# TMUX
# Put this this snippet BEFORE the aliases in .bashrc.
# This code starts TMUX with only one session (unless you start some manually), on login;
# it will try to attach to a currently running session.
# If there isn't a currently running session then TMUX will create one.
# if which tmux 2>&1 >/dev/null; then
# if not inside a tmux session, and if no session is started start a new session
# test -z "$TMUX" && (tmux attach || tmux new-session)
# fi
###

[edit[ Really all I want is a way to start a terminal while logged in to X and that terminal will spawn a new tmux or attach to a currently-running tmux session. That one-liner I have in .xinitrc doesn't seem to want to work for me. Hm, github, never been there but I guess there's always a first time.

Last edited by MoonSwan (2014-07-08 00:18:11)

jasonwryan · 2014-07-08 00:34:56

I'm not clear what you are after: a) to login to a tmux session when you start X, or b) when you are in X and open a terminal, it is a new or exisiting tmux session?
Or, on reflection, c) when you login, open a tmux session in the current TTY?

MoonSwan · 2014-07-08 00:45:07

I'm definitely after option "b" but option "c" actually sounds better in a way. I'm sorry for the lack of clarity.

[edit] Whatever I end up using I really would like to understand the code being used too. I try hard to understand bash scripts but, in all honesty, I find such coding difficult to grasp. If I could understand why the line I'm using now doesn't work I'd feel better and less like a pain asking for help on what is, to most people on the forum I'm sure, a trivial issue.

Last edited by MoonSwan (2014-07-08 00:47:44)

jasonwryan · 2014-07-08 01:00:37

b) and c) are the sane choices.

b) is the code you pasted above in #5
c) is sometihg like this in your .profile:

if [[ $(tty) = /dev/tty2 ]]; then
   [[ -z "$TMUX" ]] && (tmux attach || tmux new-session)
fi

ie., if you login on TTY2, then start a new tmux session or log into the exisiting one.

MoonSwan · 2014-07-08 01:43:01

Thank you for the help.

I did try your code out here but it didn't seem to work. I logged out completely, after shutting down X, then logged in again on TTY2 but Tmux was not running when I got to a console. After that I issued the "startx" command. Once in X I opened up a terminal window but it did not have a tmux session. What am I doing wrong?

The option b) may be the simpler answer here but I still don't know how to make it work either.

[edit] I think I figured out why your "c" option failed. When I ran htop it showed that I had multiple tmux sessions already going on! (I need to figure out how to actually stop a tmux session next ...) After I killed all the sessions through htop I logged out again completely. When I re-logged in with your code in-place tmux did start-up!I'm going to try to see if that was the issue for my original code and kill tmux sessions completely then try to login to X and open a terminal to see if tmux spawns a session.

[edit two] I did try my original code (option a, if you will) and I still can't get it to work. The only script that seems to work so far is this from my .bashrc file

# If there isn't a currently running session then TMUX will create one.
if which tmux 2>&1 >/dev/null; then
# if not inside a tmux session, and if no session is started start a new session
 test -z "$TMUX" && (tmux attach || tmux new-session)
 fi
##

It does log me into a tmux session on the console and from there I have to detach from tmux then run "startx" to get into SnapWM. I'll have to see if I can get your code to work for me. I'm sure that this is an issue with something I'm (not) doing.

Last edited by MoonSwan (2014-07-08 02:11:17)

x33a · 2014-07-08 08:59:51

jasonwryan wrote:

A quick search on guthub should throw up what you need.

I tried visiting guthub.com, but the rascals have already bought the domain

jasonwryan · 2014-07-08 09:30:12

x33a wrote:

jasonwryan wrote:
A quick search on guthub should throw up what you need.
I tried visiting guthub.com, but the rascals have already bought the domain

Lol. They got bought out...

MoonSwan · 2014-07-08 23:39:07

Very cute and funny, thanks to both of you.

I'm going to mark this as solved because other solutions seem overly complicated and my initial tmux code does give me a session when I login to the console. It's not a big deal to then detach the session, run startx and re-attach to my session.

Last edited by MoonSwan (2014-07-08 23:40:55)

MoonSwan · 2014-07-22 23:18:16

Small update:

I finally found a command to do exactly what I want to happen when I log into X. This bit of code starts a terminal and then executes tmux within that TTY after I log in to X.

[s] # Start Tmux on log-in to X (snapwm)
exec snapwm & sleep 1 && exec qterminal -e bash -c "tmux -q has-session && exec tmux attach-session -d || exec tmux new-session -n $USER -s $USER@$HOSTNAME" &&[/s]

If someone would like to make that command simpler please post it and you shall have my thanks.

Edit Two: The code above starts tmux on TTY 2 on start-up but if you close the window X gets closed as well. I managed to cobble together another line of code that doesn't kill X if you close your term window. I put this into my .xinitrc and it starts up a terminal window with a tmux session going on as soon as X loads.

# ~/.xinitrc
# TMUX
# Put this this snippet BEFORE the aliases in .bashrc.
# This code starts TMUX with only one session (unless you start some manually), on login;
# it will try to attach to a currently running session.
# If there isn't a currently running session then TMUX will create one.
 if which tmux 2>&1 >/dev/null; then
## if not inside a tmux session, and if no session is started start a new session
 test -z "$TMUX" && (exec qterminal -e bash -c "tmux -q has-session && exec tmux attach-session -d || exec tmux new-session -n $USER -s $USER") &
fi

Last edited by MoonSwan (2014-07-23 19:39:00)

Arch Linux

#1 2014-07-07 23:01:10

[solved] Trying to get a tmux-enabled terminal using my .xinitrc

#2 2014-07-07 23:14:27

Re: [solved] Trying to get a tmux-enabled terminal using my .xinitrc

#3 2014-07-08 00:06:23

Re: [solved] Trying to get a tmux-enabled terminal using my .xinitrc

#4 2014-07-08 00:10:30

Re: [solved] Trying to get a tmux-enabled terminal using my .xinitrc

#5 2014-07-08 00:16:17

Re: [solved] Trying to get a tmux-enabled terminal using my .xinitrc

#6 2014-07-08 00:34:56

Re: [solved] Trying to get a tmux-enabled terminal using my .xinitrc

#7 2014-07-08 00:45:07

Re: [solved] Trying to get a tmux-enabled terminal using my .xinitrc

#8 2014-07-08 01:00:37

Re: [solved] Trying to get a tmux-enabled terminal using my .xinitrc

#9 2014-07-08 01:43:01

Re: [solved] Trying to get a tmux-enabled terminal using my .xinitrc

#10 2014-07-08 08:59:51

Re: [solved] Trying to get a tmux-enabled terminal using my .xinitrc

#11 2014-07-08 09:30:12

Re: [solved] Trying to get a tmux-enabled terminal using my .xinitrc

#12 2014-07-08 23:39:07

Re: [solved] Trying to get a tmux-enabled terminal using my .xinitrc

#13 2014-07-22 23:18:16

Re: [solved] Trying to get a tmux-enabled terminal using my .xinitrc

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