Whenever I see auto-login feature implemented by using X login manager, I immediately think about how to automatically login user at the console without even touching graphical user interface.
Solution is so simple that I will not elaborate, but immediately move on to the point.
Inspect the /etc/inittab
file.
$ cat /etc/inittab | grep tty.$
1:2345:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty1 2:23:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty2 3:23:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty3 4:23:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty4 5:23:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty5 6:23:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty6
To automatically login milosz
user at the the tty3
and tty4
terminals you need to use -a
parameter for getty command (agetty to be precise) to specify username that will be logged in without asking for login name and password.
-i
parameter to suppress display of the issue file and -p
parameter to wait for any key before dropping to the shell.$ sudo vi /etc/inittab
[...] 1:2345:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty1 2:23:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty2 3:23:respawn:/sbin/getty -a milosz 38400 tty3 4:23:respawn:/sbin/getty -a milosz -i -p 38400 tty4 5:23:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty5 6:23:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty6 [...]
pam_motd
PAM module in the /etc/pam.d/login
configuration file.Changes will take effect after system reboot, but it is not necessary to do it as you can just execute the following commands.
Re-read inittab configuration file.
$ sudo telinit q
Take note of the PIDs of the getty processes listening on the tty3
and tty4
terminals and then simply kill them.
$ ps ax | grep getty.*tty[3-4] 4308 tty3 Ss+ 0:00 /sbin/getty 38400 tty3 4309 tty4 Ss+ 0:00 /sbin/getty 38400 tty4
$ sudo kill 4308 4309
Now you will be automatically logged in whenever you switch to the tty3
or tty4
console.
Please read systemd solution for recent operating systems.