I’m trying to install ActivityWatch but the “add to startup applications” part is causing problems. I’m running Linux Mint Cinamon. I copied the desktop file in the .config/autostart folder, and I’d like to point out that this desktop file works, but only if I double-click on it (in the file browser, Nemo). In this case, the command it executes is correctly interpreted and launches all the components required by ActivityWatch. This is obviously also the case when I run the command directly in a terminal: it works.
On the other hand, when the system boots, it doesn’t work “completely”, making ActivityWatch unable to record actions: only the aw-server process seems to start, while neither aw-watcher-afk nor aw-watcher-windows start. I looked in HTOP and saw that these two processes did launch, but disappeared from HTOP after one or two seconds (?).
I’ve also experimented with using the “startup applications” GUI supplied with Linux Mint, in which the desktop files entries in “autostart” can also be found and modified. This GUI allow me to simulate the launch of the command (“play” button) but when I launch it in this way, aw-qt fails in the same way (it only launches aw-server and no activity is recorded).
I’d also like to point out that I’ve already used desktop file creation in config/autostart for other purposes, and that it worked fine (with a simple partition mount command).
I’ve read elsewhere that it could be a problem of launching the script too early, when the desktop or certain elements haven’t yet had time to load … but this doesn’t seem to correspond with the test I carried out in the “startup applications” GUI, which I did when the session startup was completely finished.
Could it be more a question of “privilege levels” when executing the startup script?
Have you ever encountered this problem?
Thanks