How can I autostart a headless Kodi on Lubuntu?

I am running Kodi on Lubuntu (Ubuntu) 20.10 on an Intel NUC, but I think this works in general. I wanted the system to auto-login and auto-start into Kodi.

I installed Lubuntu on a fresh system and just issued an apt-get install kodi. (you can also use apt install kodi, if you are more modern than me)

• System: Linux NUC2 5.8.0-53-generic #60-Ubuntu SMP Thu May 6 07:46:32 UTC 2021 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
• Kodi: 18.8: Debian package version: 2:18.8+dfsg1-2 Media Center Kodi from Debian

My default window system is LXQt, successor of LXDE.

I wonder what the best way is to do this, and if this also works on other not-dedicated Kodi machines like Raspberry Pi, etc.?

1 Answer

Took me 2 hours to search and figure out, I think this can help others to do this in 10 minutes.

Step 1:Create a user with "auto login". In my case, I had created a user "start" that automagically logs in without a password. How? In LXQt: go to Start --> Preferences --> LXQ Settings --> Users and Groups. Create that user.

You can use command line if you prefer, and adjust it like this:vi /etc/sddm.confYou can also put a user here with a password, that user will also auto-login

Step 2: Auto-start KodiIn the home directory of that user (in my case "start"), copy the file /usr/share/applications/kodi.desktop to .config/autostart

Log in as "start"

mkdir /home/start/.config/autostart
cd /home/start/.config/autostart
cp /usr/share/applications/kodi.desktop ./

(I am skipping the ~/ notation to make it easier for beginners)

Hint: Rename /usr/share/applications/kodi.desktop to kodi.desktop.txt and it will reboot into LXQt again in stead of Kodi.

General hint 1:Turn off or modify the screensaver of your windowing system, since it may override Kodi. In LXQt for example: In LXQt --> Preferences --> LXQt Settings --> Screen Saver

General hint 2:Default sound output in my case was analog (the mini-jack port), change it to HDMI in LXQt --> Sound & Video --> PulseAdio Volume Control --> tab 'configuration' --> "Digital Stereo Output". After reboot, it returns every time to analog audio, will figure that out later.