On Linux startup: count 10 seconds, then start Steam (application)

[Bryan1992345]

Welp, Stack Overflow is full of unimaginative elitist. So I'm posting this here and hoping that from seeing how LMG's community interacts with one another that things will turn out different...

 

The issue:

My system drive is too fast at getting the initial startup out of the way. So when it goes to launch Steam on startup as the application is setup to do, it does so before my other mounted drives have a chance to be recognized by the system. This causes the application to think that the drives weren't there to begin with.

 

My knowledge:

Being extremely new to Linux, I really haven't tried anything besides trying to research the equivalent of Windows batch scripting.

If I were to set this up on Windows, I'd write a batch script that would startup, run timer for 10 seconds, the start Steam. Allowing for plenty of time for the other drives to be recognized and mounted prior to any other program trying to interact with them.

[YoungBlade]

You can easily do that on Linux. Here's a basic overview: https://www.baeldung.com/linux/run-script-on-startup

 

I think the rc.local option is likely the simplest.

 

So you would need to remove Steam from the list of startup applications so that it doesn't try to launch twice, then write your script.

 

The script is basically just going to be:

#!/bin/sh

sleep 10

steam

 

That just means sleep (wait) for 10 seconds then run the "steam" command, which should launch Steam.

 

Hopefully that works for you.

[E-waste]

55 minutes ago, Bryan1992345 said:

So when it goes to launch Steam on startup as the application is setup to do, it does so before my other mounted drives

Have you added the drives into the /etc/fstab flie?

 

You can follow the format of existing  devices listed in the file, and to get UUID:

 

sudo blkid /dev/ name of storage device.  I don't have nvme, but it is usually not listed as sda but something else, like nwme0.

 

To get a list of all devices:

 

lsblk

 

It lists all storage devices.  You could also open KDE partition manager, and click devices in the menu.  Or disks in gnome.  Right clicking properties in a file manager in a folder will also list a uuid value, but it is not for that whole device, but rather, the partition uuid, which is different, so don't use that.

 

In the /etc/fstab file, the last two 0 digits are important.  For your boot device, I suggest setting the last 0 to 1.

 

The first 0 is very antiquated, and no longer used by most, something to do with backup.  Leave it as 0.

 

The second digit is for a file system check, and 1 means to check it at every boot.  2 means at every other boot.  I would like to see this file receive much better documentation, as it is still a critical part of the system.  Redhat does a good job explaining it:

 

https://www.redhat.com/sysadmin/etc-fstab

[Kilrah]

What distro are you using and how are you starting Steam? The "Startup applications" app present on a bunch of distros already has a configurable delay.

[Bryan1992345]

1 hour ago, Kilrah said:

What distro are you using and how are you starting Steam? The "Startup applications" app present on a bunch of distros already has a configurable delay.

I am running on Pop! os. Extremely new to it, and so far loving how lightweight this system is. I am also letting the Steam application startup on launch through the application settings.

[Ralphred]

3 hours ago, Bryan1992345 said:

it does so before my other mounted drives have a chance to be recognized by the system

Obviously @YoungBlade's script does what is says, wait 10 seconds, then starts steam.

 

I do have "some processes" that require "other things" to be in place before continuing, and tend to use a until or while loop.

This is a quick hackey edit of one for my "wait for" scripts to suit your needs:

#!/bin/bash

wait_for(){
    limit=1
    until grep -q "$1" /proc/mounts;do
        if [[ $limit -gt 40 ]] ;then
            echo "Timeout waiting for $1!"
            exit 1
        else
            limit=$(( limit + 1 ))
        fi
    	sleep 0.25
    done
    echo "$1 mounted OK"
}

wait_for "/dev/sdb1"
wait_for "/dev/sdc1"

steam

The idea here being; the script will check if the listed drive is mounted, every 1/4 of a second until it is mounted, then move on to the next drive to check. How we reach the `10 second timeout value` is "if [[ $limit -gt 40 ]] ;then", 40 x 1/4 of a second = 10 seconds.

[Bryan1992345]

2 hours ago, E-waste said:

Have you added the drives into the /etc/fstab flie?

 

You can follow the format of existing  devices listed in the file, and to get UUID:

 

sudo blkid /dev/ name of storage device.  I don't have nvme, but it is usually not listed as sda but something else, like nwme0.

 

To get a list of all devices:

 

lsblk

 

It lists all storage devices.  You could also open KDE partition manager, and click devices in the menu.  Or disks in gnome.  Right clicking properties in a file manager in a folder will also list a uuid value, but it is not for that whole device, but rather, the partition uuid, which is different, so don't use that.

 

In the /etc/fstab file, the last two 0 digits are important.  For your boot device, I suggest setting the last 0 to 1.

 

The first 0 is very antiquated, and no longer used by most, something to do with backup.  Leave it as 0.

 

The second digit is for a file system check, and 1 means to check it at every boot.  2 means at every other boot.  I would like to see this file receive much better documentation, as it is still a critical part of the system.  Redhat does a good job explaining it:

 

https://www.redhat.com/sysadmin/etc-fstab

I have not done this yet. Back when I was running on Holoiso, I had to because it wasn't already mounting them. Pop! os finds them and mounts them for me, only difference was that I had to go into disk management and enable the "automation" (the "play" button on the partition). Am I wrong and Pop! os isn't automatically mounting my drives? Genuine question.

[Ralphred]

2 minutes ago, Bryan1992345 said:

Am I wrong and Pop! os isn't automatically mounting my drives? Genuine question.

It can be, but they will be mounted purely in "userspace", usually in /run/user[id] somewhere. It may or may not be consistent (regarding naming and mount location), and is probably being run after you login as it needs your valid credentials to do so.

 

TBQH putting the relevant entries in /etc/fstab would probably solve the issue, as local filesystems are mounted early on in the boot process, this will also allow you to create consistant mount points.

[Bryan1992345]

I will definitely be keeping this thread updated with what was tried from the suggestions made - you are all AWESOME!! Record level and comprehensive support.

[Bryan1992345]

I will definitely be keeping this thread updated with what was tried from the suggestions made - you are all AWESOME!! Record level and comprehensive support.

 

(edit) Using two of the suggestions provided, I was able to get the result I was looking for.

 

@Ralphred & @E-waste, looking further into how Pop! os handles drives, it apparently already creates/edits the /etc/fstab file. So all I needed to do was enable the feature to mount my drives at startup (as the system calls it "automation" enabled).

 

@Ralphred, I tried your script but it wasn't doing anything on my system for some reason, so I went with @YoungBlade's suggestion. I had to edit it a fair amount otherwise terminal would stay running. After the minor edits, it ran flawlessly.

 

@Kilrah, this was another one of those very useful, hidden features of Linux that was unknown to me and now I'm glad I know it exists. I created a startup command to run the .sh file @YoungBlade suggested, which was set as an executable.

 

Now everytime I startup Pop! os, it gives ample time for the drive mounting automation to complete task prior to launching Steam. Steam starts up and doesn't have to look for missing drives anymore.

 

@Ralphred, I still think your script suggestion is an interesting one that would incorporate redundancy that I find appealing. I wouldn't mind still trying to figure out why that one didn't work.

 

Again, massive thanks to everyone who helped out, this was really cool to see, and reassuring that there is a community willing to help the blind find their way.

[Ralphred]

41 minutes ago, Bryan1992345 said:

I wouldn't mind still trying to figure out why that one didn't work.

Just post the output of fstab; you need to edit the two drives it's checking for so they actually match yours.