Autostart VPN .desktop doesnt work

User Support
1

I’m trying to get my VPN running on VM start following this:

But it seems the .desktop in autostart doesn’t work. When I run ./start_vpn.desktop in terminal I get:

./start_vpn.desktop: line 1: [Desktop: command not found

Here is what’s in my .dektop-file:

[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Name=VPN
Exec=/home/user/start_vpn.sh

The connect script start_vpn.sh works fine.

What’s the issue here?

2

A .desktop file is not meant to be executed by hand. You can add it to /usr/local/share/applications/ or ~/.local/share/applications/, it should then appear in the Application menu in the qube settings.

3

That’s not the issue here. The issue is, that the autostart does not work. I’m trying to autoconnect on VM startup with the my VPN.

That’s why I have my start_vpn.desktop file in /.config/autostart with a path to: start_vpn.sh

I tried ./start_vpn.sh in terminal so that script works. The paths in the .desktop file are set correctly. When running the .desktop file from applications the VPN connects as described. The problem is that when running the same .desktop file from autostart it does not connect the VPN.

4

I replied to this when you mentionned you tried to execute the .desktop file, which is not meant to be executed.

As for your issue, maybe the current working directory is important in your script, and from autostart it is run from a different working directory and thus doesn’t work? Do you have anything in your logs?

5

Can you share the content of start_vpn.sh?

6

#!/bin/bash
nmcli con up $(nmcli con show | grep -m1 vpn | awk ‘{print $1}’)

7

I have followed the exact instructions from the post I’ve linked in my OP. directories, paths all the same.

8

Same issue here jut with the desktop files of Jetbrains products, any solution for this?

9

Follow this guide if you want to autostart the app:
How to install software | Qubes OS

1 Like
10

Thanks for the suggestion @apparatus

I get this erorr even when trying to run it manually. I can’t open the app form the app menu, but when I open the app be the Exec command form the desktop entry it works.

[Desktop Entry]
Name=IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate 2024.2.4
Exec="/home/user/.local/share/JetBrains/Toolbox/apps/intellij-idea-ultimate/bin/idea" %u
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Categories=Development;IDE;
Terminal=false
Icon=/home/user/.local/share/JetBrains/Toolbox/apps/intellij-idea-ultimate/bin/idea.svg
Comment=The Leading Java and Kotlin IDE
StartupWMClass=jetbrains-idea
StartupNotify=true

This is how my desktop entry looks like.

11

What’s the name of the desktop file?

12

jetbrains-idea-c53b8158-f15e-4f44-9595-abd75f623c2f.desktop (I installed it using jetbrains toolbox)

13

It’s this issue:

Also desktop file is not a script, so you can’t just run it from the shell like this:

./jetbrains-idea-c53b8158-f15e-4f44-9595-abd75f623c2f.desktop

If you want to run it from the terminal you need to use this command:

gtk-launch jetbrains-idea-c53b8158-f15e-4f44-9595-abd75f623c2f.desktop
14

This helped, thanks. Filename was too long.

for file in jetbrains-*.desktop; do mv "$file" "$(echo "$file" | sed -E 's/-[a-f0-9-]{36}//')"; done

fixed the issue