Sleep command not working with start up applications

Question

I am trying to add a delay at start up for a few applications using the sleep command. For example: I'm trying sleep 5; tomboy which works in terminal, but doesn't work when I add it to the command field in the "Startup Applications" section of the system settings.

With the sleep command, the commands don't seem to execute at all. Is there another command I should be using to create a delay? Is this a bug?

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 11 '11 at 14:23

5

The startup applications line probably doesn't invoke a shell. Try setting it to run in a terminal. Then, change it to: bash -c 'sleep 5; exec tomboy'.

Warning: This is all untested.

answered Apr 11 '11 at 14:23

Scott Severance

14,056

1

You probably don't want to set it to run in a terminal since you don't want a useless terminal window hanging around. – psusi Apr 11 '11 at 15:48
@psusi @mssever This is working perfectly. It's not launching a terminal window, everything starts up like it should, just now with the delay. Thanks a bunch. – aboutros Apr 11 '11 at 20:29
2

Use X-GNOME-Autostart-Delay=5 in .desktop file in ~/.config/autostart/tomboy.desktop. see here:How can I delay a specific program on startup? – Khurshid Alam Mar 23 '13 at 10:03

Sleep command not working with start up applications

1 Answers1