[solved] How to create an sddm session to run a custom script

tvidal · 2023-02-12 20:56:32

TL;DR: How can I create a custom sddm button to execute a simple 2 commands script instead of opening an actual Desktop Environment?

So, I have a Microsoft Surface with Windows/Linux dual boot, which I use mostly with touch controls only (no physical keyboard).

Linux is my main OS but sometimes I need to boot to Windows. Since this device's bios does not have a simple touch-only boot menu, whenever I want to boot into windows, I must log into linux, open a terminal and run

efibootmgr --bootnext <windows boot entry>

and then

reboot now

I am looking for a way to run these commands straight from sddm without the need to login and open a terminal, just like I have the reboot and shutdown buttons. I was thinking maybe creating a new Xsession that executes a bash script somewhere instead of the usual startplasma or whatever, but I don't know where this file would exist or what format it would have.

Does anyone know if that is even possible or how this can be achieved, please?

Thank you.

Last edited by tvidal (2023-02-13 10:47:18)

Head_on_a_Stick · 2023-02-12 21:20:13

See https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/displa … figuration

So something like this at /usr/local/share/xsessions/boot_windows.desktop might work:

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Reboot into Windows
Comment=Set Windows boot entry as first
Exec=/usr/local/bin/boot_windows
TryExec=/usr/local/bin/boot_windows
Icon=Windows.png
Type=Application

With a corresponding executable script at /usr/local/bin/boot_windows containing the necessary commands.

EDIT: place the Windows icon at /usr/local/share/pixmaps/windows.png

Last edited by Head_on_a_Stick (2023-02-12 21:21:13)

tvidal · 2023-02-13 10:47:00

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:

See https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/displa … figuration
So something like this at /usr/local/share/xsessions/boot_windows.desktop might work:
(...)

Thank you for your response, that got me a bit closer I think.

Using /usr/local/share/xsessions did not work, but when I moved the .desktop file to /usr/share/xsessions I can see a dropdown prompt to select the session on the bottom left corner of the screen.

I am not considering other options, like creating a specific passwordless user to boot straight into windows or creating a custom theme with a button to execute this script next to reboot/shutdown, etc... but your solution was by far the easiest and has got me going in the short term.

Thank you.

btw, here's the reboot-windows zsh script for future google results of this topic:

#!/usr/bin/env zsh
set -x

[ $UID -eq 0 ] || exec sudo ${0:A}

efibootmgr | awk '$2 == "Windows" {print substr($1, 5, 4)}' | xargs efibootmgr --bootnext

reboot

Head_on_a_Stick · 2023-02-13 18:35:54

tvidal wrote:

Using /usr/local/share/xsessions did not work

Oops, sorry about that. I don't use a display manager myself so I didn't test. Seems like /usr/local/share/xsessions/ should work though, but perhaps that's just me.

Arch Linux

#1 2023-02-12 20:56:32

[solved] How to create an sddm session to run a custom script

#2 2023-02-12 21:20:13

Re: [solved] How to create an sddm session to run a custom script

#3 2023-02-13 10:47:00

Re: [solved] How to create an sddm session to run a custom script

#4 2023-02-13 18:35:54

Re: [solved] How to create an sddm session to run a custom script

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