How to Delay Application Startup in Xfce Based on Network Connectivity

In many cases, you may find it necessary to delay the startup of certain applications in your Xfce environment. This could be due to various factors, such as waiting for network connectivity to be fully established or for other background processes to finish initializing before an application launches.

Fortunately, there’s a simple and reliable way to delay the startup of applications, specifically by ensuring that they only launch after a network connection is active. This method is particularly useful if your applications rely on network access, such as web browsers or messaging clients.

Delaying Application Startup Until Network is Available

Instead of just using a fixed time delay, you can implement a more reliable approach that checks for network availability before starting the application. Here’s an example of how to delay the startup of the Liferea application until an active network connection is detected:

1/bin/sh -c 'sleep 5; until ping -c 1 google.com &>/dev/null; do sleep 5; done; liferea'

Explanation

• /bin/sh: This invokes the system’s default shell interpreter, ensuring that you can run shell commands even if the application isn’t directly executable from the shell.
• -c: This option tells the shell to execute the command string that follows.
• 'sleep 5': The sleep command introduces a brief pause before the check for network connectivity begins. This is useful in case there’s a slight delay in the system’s network setup right after booting.
• until ping -c 1 google.com &>/dev/null; do sleep 5; done;: This loop checks if the system can reach google.com by sending a single ping request. If the ping fails (meaning no active network connection), it waits for 5 seconds and tries again until the network is up. This ensures that your application doesn’t start until the network is available.
• liferea: This is the application that will be launched once the network is available. You can replace liferea with any other application you wish to start.

Once this command is executed, it will wait for 5 seconds, check for network availability by pinging a reliable host (e.g., Google), and then launch your application once the network connection is confirmed. You can adjust the duration of the sleep command or the interval in the until loop as needed.

Automating the Network-Aware Delayed Startup in Xfce

Now that you know how to manually delay an application’s startup based on network availability, you may want to automate this process, especially if you want certain applications to always start with a delay when you log into your system.

Step 1: Access the Xfce Session and Startup Settings

1. Open the Application Menu in Xfce.
2. Go to Settings > Session and Startup.
3. Under the Application Autostart tab, click on Add to create a new startup entry.

Step 2: Add the Network-Aware Delayed Command

In the dialog that appears:

1. Enter a name for your new startup entry (e.g., “Delayed Liferea”).
2. In the Command field, input the following delayed command:

   1/bin/sh -c 'sleep 5; until ping -c 1 google.com &>/dev/null; do sleep 5; done; liferea'
   

3. Optionally, add a description and set any other preferences, such as whether the application should be hidden when it starts.

Step 3: Save and Test

Click OK to save the entry. The next time you log in, Xfce will automatically execute this command, starting your application only after the network is active and the system is ready.

Conclusion

Delaying the startup of applications in Xfce is a powerful way to ensure that certain conditions—such as network connectivity—are met before launching applications. By using a network-aware delay mechanism, you can avoid issues where applications fail to start properly due to the lack of an active connection. Whether you’re optimizing your system’s startup sequence or ensuring that critical applications have the resources they need, this method offers a more reliable and flexible solution compared to a simple time-based delay.