Start OpenPCpn at boot

[ozone_one]

Hello:

I am running OpenPlotter beta x64; is there a setting or best-practice for having OpenCpn start automatically at boot up?

I am running latest x64 beta code on an RPi5.  It isn't the end of the world to manually start the app after booting, but it would be nice if it were to just start after the boot process is finished.

[Techstyle]

Hello:

I am running OpenPlotter beta x64; is there a setting or best-practice for having OpenCpn start automatically at boot up?

I am running latest x64 beta code on an RPi5.  It isn't the end of the world to manually start the app after booting, but it would be nice if it were to just start after the boot process is finished.

Read this: https://openplotter.readthedocs.io/en/la...n_app.html

once in the OpenCPN Installer App you can set OCPN to Autostart

[ozone_one]

Hello:

I am running OpenPlotter beta x64; is there a setting or best-practice for having OpenCpn start automatically at boot up?

I am running latest x64 beta code on an RPi5.  It isn't the end of the world to manually start the app after booting, but it would be nice if it were to just start after the boot process is finished.

Read this: https://openplotter.readthedocs.io/en/la...n_app.html

once in the OpenCPN Installer App you can set OCPN to Autostart

Thanks - was just coming back here to say that I found this answer.  My expectation was that OpenCPN would autostart, but I guess this is not how the x64 current beta image was set up.  And it is a bit counterintuitive to run an application installer to get access to this setting when the application is already installed.

[Techstyle]

Hello:

I am running OpenPlotter beta x64; is there a setting or best-practice for having OpenCpn start automatically at boot up?

I am running latest x64 beta code on an RPi5.  It isn't the end of the world to manually start the app after booting, but it would be nice if it were to just start after the boot process is finished.

Read this: https://openplotter.readthedocs.io/en/la...n_app.html

once in the OpenCPN Installer App you can set OCPN to Autostart

Thanks - was just coming back here to say that I found this answer.  My expectation was that OpenCPN would autostart, but I guess this is not how the x64 current beta image was set up.  And it is a bit counterintuitive to run an application installer to get access to this setting when the application is already installed.

Maybe it is a bit counter intuitive to to use the OCPN Installer app for this but where else would you put it? Not everybody uses OpenCPN as their chartplotter, or wants it to autostart - so provision was made to turn it on and off as an option in the installer app.  It is well documented!

[ozone_one]

Off the top of my head, I could see such a setting living in a few places:
- Settings or Preferences section somewhere within the OpenCpn application itself. Just a checkbox "Run OpenCpn at boot"
- IIRC, there is an app that runs upon startup - OpenPlotter-Startup or something like that? It is what presents the list of diagnostic checks. It would make sense to me if there was a section within this app where you could configure startup behavior for the applications bundled within OpenPlotter.
- Maybe in the Settings application where you can choose components to install, update, or uninstall, there could be a simple "Run at startup" checkbox for anything where that is applicable?

I can understand maybe not having OpenCpn set to start at boot for people who download an installer to put OpenPlotter on an already existing OS - that type of user may be more likely to want an ala carte setup. But as someone who obtained OpenPlotter through the preconfigured Debian OS image, my brain was expecting OpenCPN to either boot at startup or have an obvious option within Prefs/Settings somewhere to select this behavior. I freely admit my brain may be Abby-Normal, though .

[Sailoog]

Good points. My thoughts...

- Having this option within OpenCPN is not an option because automatic program startup must be configured on host systems and OpenCPn can run on multiple platforms, including derived systems with infinite variations.

- Some people do not even use OpenCPN so enabling auto-start in OpenPlotter by default is not an option either.

- All OpenPlotter apps include the settings to manage the programs that they include.

This is the logic we followed to add the OpenCPN auto-start in the openplotter-opencpn-installer app.

[holgerw]

maybe just call it "openplotter-opencpn-configure" instead "installer".

ym2c

[Sailoog]

That could work but then I can hear people asking: where is opencpn? how can I install it?

[PaddyB]

Seems fine as it is imho. Just look at the manual, all in there ?