startting up debian without a password

[knobby]

Hello,
I'm developing some software on debian using GNOME and x windows. It's to be used in an embedded system, so I don't want the login screen to start up. Basically I'd like it to boot straight into my application, can anyone advise the best way to do this. Be simple please I'm a programmer but not a Linux expert so am learning very slowly
Thanks in advance!

[tana]

Just a suggestion: Morphix Live CD loads directly - i.e bypassing the login screen. I think that the password is hardcoded somewhere and that is why it just proceeds with loading the desktop. Well, I have no idea how exactly to do it in your case, or if this is a solution for you, but still I'd like to suggest to see how it has been implemented in Morphix (and possibly some other Live CDs but for now I can't remember seeing it somewhere else).

[Zelmo]

You can automatically log in a user by adding these two lines to your /etc/gdm/gdm.conf (or altering the existing lines by adding these new values):

AutomaticLoginEnable=true
AutomaticLogin=knobby

Of course, if you don't have a user named "knobby" then you'll need to put in the name of a user who has execute privileges for the program you want to run.

To run a program, you can write a startup script and save it to the /etc/gdm/PostLogin directory, where it will be executed once you log in. Or you can have the script as part of your session. Take a look at this link for a bunch of configuration options.