Linux Launcher

[Darmain]

Hi guys,

It's been a while since I've been on here. I have CumulusMX running on Ubuntu 18.04 server, on an enterprise server, and its running sweet.

My reason for posting is for a friend, who is attempting to run cumulusMX on a Ubuntu 18.04 laptop. He has Cumulus running from the terminal no problem, but what he wants is to create a desktop launcher, to open a terminal and run the program. It sounds quite straight forward but he, and I, have been battling with this, on our respective systems for most of the day.

I have a shell script called "starter.sh" with this -

echo cd /home/dave/cumulusMX/
echo mypassword | sudo -S mono CumulusMX.exe

Obviously "starter.sh" has been made executable and it runs fine from the command line.

So then I create "weather station.desktop" in the Desktop folder. This is the code -

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Terminal=true
path = /home/dave/weather-station-test/
Exec=gnome-terminal -- /home/dave/cumulusMX/starter.sh
Name=Weather Station
Comment=Starts the weather station

I made this executable and trustworthy, but this doesn't work. The terminal flashes into view and quits instantly. The reason that it doesn't work is because the terminal is not in the right directory, even though I've specifically instructed it to be.

Does anyone have a solution for this that works? The reason for this is my friend would like to be able to ask his wife to start the weather station if necessary, so this de-skills the process.

Many thanks,

Dave

[mcrossley]

Shouldn't your starter.sh script be...

Code: Select all

#!/bin/bash
cd /home/dave/cumulusMX/
echo mypassword | sudo -S mono CumulusMX.exe

[Vegit8]

Its me who needs spousal support...

added the line as suggested
Now get a terminal window - with the following at the top, not as terminal text, but in some sort of box..
Along with 2 buttons, Preferences and Relaunch

There was an error creating the child process for this terminal
Failed to execute child process “/home/geoff/CumulusMX/starter.sh” (No such file or directory)

[mcrossley]

Ah, I see now you are using gnome-terminal, sorry I don't know anything about that. Why not just run the bash script direct from a shortcut?

Code: Select all

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Terminal=true
path = /home/dave/cumulusMX
Exec=/home/dave/cumulusMX/starter.sh
Name=Weather Station
GenericName=Weather Station
Comment=Starts the weather station
Categories=Application;

Though if you are specifying the path in the shortcut, then you don't need it in the script as well. Your shortcut has the path being set to "/home/dave/weather-station-test/" but the location of Cumulus and the script appears to be "/home/dave/cumulusMX/" ?

[Vegit8]

So....

I modified starter.sh to look like this

Code: Select all

#!/bin/bash
echo <password> | sudo -S mono CumulusMX.exe

I then modified the desktop launcher file to look like this.

Code: Select all

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Terminal=true
path = /home/geoff/CumulusMX
Exec=/home/geoff/CumulusMX/starter.sh
Name=Weather Station
GenericName=Weather Station
Comment=Starts the weather station
Categories=Application;

When double clicking the desktop launcher icon I get.. a popup Window saying

There was an error creating the child process for this terminal
Failed to execute child process “/home/geoff/CumulusMX/starter.sh” (No such file or directory)

.

Which is the same as the previous iteration

However if I open a terminal window from the CumulusMX directory and run the code from the starter.sh file, MX runs with no problem.

I am not even a novice at Linux / Ubuntu (i'm less than that) which is why I initially got assistance from Darmain.
Why is this so difficult?
In the much derided windows world all I would have needed to would be to make a shortcut to the starter file, put it on the desktop. Job done!
No faffing with command line instructions etc...

Any suggestions gratefully recd please.

[zoomx]

Try

Exec=gnome-terminal -e "/home/geoff/CumulusMX/starter.sh"

Got from here
https://askubuntu.com/questions/436891/ ... a-terminal

[mcrossley]

If the above does not work then...

And the starter.sh script is definitely in /home/geoff/CumulusMX - all matching case as well?

And bash is in /bin/bash (not / - btw I *think* it should be "#! /bin/bash" - not sure if that makes any difference?

From the 'tinternet...

imo the simplest answer is -

1. Check that the .sh file works if clicked or run from its own directory.
2. If it works there, right-click on it in Files aka Nautilus, select 'Make Link'
3. This produces a file named 'link to xxxx.sh' in the same directory
4. Drag this onto the desktop
5. Rename it how you wish eg clean off 'link to' and 'sh', just leave the name, it will still work.

[Vegit8]

Hi again
I checked the syntax of #!/bin/bash it is now correct

OK... some sort of progress..

My starter script looks like this

Code: Select all

#!/bin/bash
echo <password> | sudo -S mono CumulusMX.exe

If I drop that into a Terminal window cd'd to CumulusMX it runs CumulusMX

If I open a terminal window at the default location, Root?
And add the path into the starter script, I then get a missing file CumulusMX.exe - despite the script changing directory as part of the run.
This is effectively what the desktop script is saying once run

Code: Select all

geoff@Linux:~$ #!/bin/bash
geoff@Linux:~$ echo cd /home/geoff/CumulusMX
cd /home/geoff/CumulusMX
geoff@Linux:~$ echo <password> | sudo -S mono CumulusMX.exe
[sudo] password for geoff: Cannot open assembly 'CumulusMX.exe': No such file or directory.
geoff@Linux:~$

[freddie]

Hi again
I checked the syntax of #!/bin/bash it is now correct

OK... some sort of progress..

My starter script looks like this

Code: Select all

#!/bin/bash
echo <password> | sudo -S mono CumulusMX.exe

If I drop that into a Terminal window cd'd to CumulusMX it runs CumulusMX

If I open a terminal window at the default location, Root?
And add the path into the starter script, I then get a missing file CumulusMX.exe - despite the script changing directory as part of the run.
This is effectively what the desktop script is saying once run

Code: Select all

geoff@Linux:~$ #!/bin/bash
geoff@Linux:~$ echo cd /home/geoff/CumulusMX
cd /home/geoff/CumulusMX
geoff@Linux:~$ echo <password> | sudo -S mono CumulusMX.exe
[sudo] password for geoff: Cannot open assembly 'CumulusMX.exe': No such file or directory.
geoff@Linux:~$

You need to remove the echo before the cd command. Like this:

Code: Select all

#!/bin/bash
cd /home/geoff/CumulusMX
echo <password> | sudo -S mono CumulusMX.exe

[Darmain]

You need to remove the echo before the cd command. Like this:

Code: Select all

#!/bin/bash
cd /home/geoff/CumulusMX
echo <password> | sudo -S mono CumulusMX.exe

And that is the solution! Getting too carried away with my "echos" it would appear. Result!!!

Many thanks to everyone who has posted. We have a solution.

[mcrossley]

Shouldn't your starter.sh script be...

Code: Select all

#!/bin/bash
cd /home/dave/cumulusMX/
echo mypassword | sudo -S mono CumulusMX.exe

[Vegit8]

So......
After many attempts to get this working and taking up far too much of my chum Darmain's time, I overcame the problem.

Basically, despite all efforts and lots of terminal command typing the .desktop launcher repeatedly failed with 'file not found'.
Time and time again we checked the pathing and naming and the file was definitely where it was supposed to be.

Now... What dave didnt know, and I didnt tell him because I did'nt think it important was that the .sh file and the .desktop file were both created using notepad++.

For years and years I have been using NP++ on Mac's and PC's to create any sort of file that needed to work in a code environment, for the precise reason that when saving it did not create a file with additional hidden attributes.

Dave showed me how to use nano, yet another interface from the '80's.
Even after editing my originals in nano they still failed to run.

In a fit of pique I recreated both from scratch in nano, did all the other command line stuff and booyah... they worked as intended.

It has taken approximately 20 man hours, not including input from this forum to achieve something that I could do in Windows or a Mac environment in less than 3 minutes.

I am new to Linux, but I have to say it leaves me cold. I have been involved in IT for more than 40 years and I find it amazing that in this day and age there is an OS that is so awkward to achieve anything.

The moral of this tale? - Take nothing for granted, stuff that has worked for years does not necessarily work in Linux.