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In 2011, I asked a question about how to record the files being opened by programs at a specific time. A reply said:

There is a setting to remember all apps when shutting down it is found in the startup applications menu item (last tab if I recall correctly)

in the system-> preferences menu

I guess the reply refers to Gnome or Unity according to the time of the reply. I was wondering what is the name of "the last tab" in the system-> preferences menu which the reply refers to?

Note that I am now running LXDE on Ubuntu 16.04, which may have different arrangement. So I try to see if I can find an equivalent to the tab for gnome.

Thanks.

Community
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Tim
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2 Answers2

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GNOME

GNOME on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, 16.04 LTS and 18.04 LTS does not have such options in Startup Applications (or gnome-session-properties) - see screenshot below:

gnome-session-properties

MATE

As far I know it exists in MATE Desktop Environment in any current Ubuntu version - 14.04 LTS (with MATE PPA), 16.04 LTS, 18.04 LTS.

You can access it from System->Preferences->Personal->Startup Applications (or mate-session-properties).

mate-session-properties

From my personal experience it restore several GTK-based applications such as Firefox, Pluma, Atril, Caja, Zotero on next boot.

KDE

For KDE see this answer given by @WinEunuuchs2Unix on the similar thread.

N0rbert
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Short Answer

If you want to save sessions across reboots you'll have to switch from Lubuntu (LXDE Desktop) to Kubuntu (KDE desktop) or Xubuntu (XFCE desktop).

It won't work on Ubuntu (Unity Desktop).

Long Answer

Using this tool I recently wrote: Bash one-liner to display ALL `gsettings` in Zenity or Yad. I sorted on Key and scrolled to the A section to find:

auto save session.png

Note: Many people will prefer to install dconf-editor to navigate to the gsettings and set the values.

To manually find the states use:

$ gsettings get org.gnome.SessionManager auto-save-session
false
$ gsettings get org.gnome.SessionManager auto-save-session-one-shot
false

To save the session for across reboots use:

gsettings set org.gnome.SessionManager auto-save-session true

Then reboot.

Note: This doesn't work in Ubuntu 16.04 but does in Kubuntu.

Someone recommended here to use Compiz Session Management:

Compiz session management.png

but it doesn't appear to work in Ubuntu 16.04 either.

WinEunuuchs2Unix
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    You are right, it does not work on clean Ubuntu 16.04 LTS Unity installation. GNOME developers demonstrate idiotic behavior again by this "feature". They moved this option to gsettings/dconf sometimes ago between 12.04 LTS and 14.04 LTS. Suspend or Hibernate is not an option. – N0rbert Apr 02 '18 at 21:49
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    @N0rbert The gsettings are probably shared amongst all distros. For this particular one only Xubuntu and Kubuntu appear to honor / support it. I'm not sure I understand your suspend reference as I would suggest that for daily usage and only rebooting every couple of weeks when a new update asks you to. – WinEunuuchs2Unix Apr 02 '18 at 22:30