Difficulty with starting python script at boot on Raspberry pi

Question

hoping someone can help. i'm new to python and trying to start a script on boot on raspbian. Nothing i try seems to work and just seeing what I am missing. A very basic script to play an audio file when it receives a UDP command.

I have so far tried - starting it from rc.local, starting it in .bashrc (this work when i start a new terminal via ssh, staring from init.d, below is the init.d script, the .py standard script is the same minus the Init info....

#! /usr/bin/python3

# /etc/init.d/UDP_Python_Omxplayer.py
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides:          UDP_Python_Omxplayer.py
# Required-Start:    $remote_fs $syslog
# Required-Stop:     $remote_fs $syslog
# Default-Start:     2 3 4 5
# Default-Stop:      0 1 6
# Short-Description: Start daemon at boot time
# Description:       Enable service provided by daemon.
### END INIT INFO

import socket
import os

UDP_IP = "192.168.123.10"
UDP_PORT = 5005

sock = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, # Internet
                 socket.SOCK_DGRAM) # UDP

sock.bind((UDP_IP, UDP_PORT))

while True:
    data, addr = sock.recvfrom(1024) # buffer size is 1024 bytes
    print ("received message:", data)
    command = str(data.decode('ASCII'))

    if command == "Play":
        os.system("omxplayer -o both --no-osd /home/pi/Doc*/Air*")

As above, the scripts work, i just cannot get this to autmate and run int he background on boot?

thanks in advance...

Have tried in a cron job with the following:

sudo crontab -e

and added

@reboot sudo python /home/pi/UDP_Python_Omxplayer.py

also have made this into a service, which if i start the service manually then it works fine, but again from boot does not..

@Jeril Thanks that guide is actually the one i have followed on the 5 ways to boot, but nothing seems to run it unless i start a terminal. — Phil Haldane
– Phil Haldane, Commented May 2, 2019 at 10:18
@roganjosh I have made a cron job, but again it doesnt start n the background, maybe missing something in my script to make it a background task? — Phil Haldane
– Phil Haldane, Commented May 2, 2019 at 10:32

fw08 · Accepted Answer · 2019-05-02 10:55:23Z

Try to create a service.

Open shell and type a command: sudo vi /etc/rc.local This will open a file including following detail.

#!/bin/sh -e
#
# rc.local
#
# This script is executed at the end of each multiuser runlevel.
# Make sure that the script will "exit 0" on success or any other
# value on error.
#
# In order to enable or disable this script just change the execution
# bits.
#
# By default this script does nothing.

# Print the IP address
_IP=$(hostname -I) || true
if [ "$_IP" ]; then
  printf "My IP address is %s\n" "$_IP"
fi

cd /home/pi/XXXXX/XXXXX && python3 my_script.py > /home/pi/Desktop/log.txt 2>&1

exit 0

Give the path of your script and replace my_script.py with your script name. Save and exit the file.

It will also save the logs of scipt on desktop in log.txt file.

If this not works modify your script like below.

#! /usr/bin/python3

# /etc/init.d/UDP_Python_Omxplayer.py
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides:          UDP_Python_Omxplayer.py
# Required-Start:    $remote_fs $syslog
# Required-Stop:     $remote_fs $syslog
# Default-Start:     2 3 4 5
# Default-Stop:      0 1 6
# Short-Description: Start daemon at boot time
# Description:       Enable service provided by daemon.
### END INIT INFO

from time import sleep
sleep(45)

import socket
import os

UDP_IP = "192.168.123.10"
UDP_PORT = 5005

sock = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, # Internet
                 socket.SOCK_DGRAM) # UDP

sock.bind((UDP_IP, UDP_PORT))

while True:
    data, addr = sock.recvfrom(1024) # buffer size is 1024 bytes
    print ("received message:", data)
    command = str(data.decode('ASCII'))

    if command == "Play":
        os.system("omxplayer -o both --no-osd /home/pi/Doc*/Air*")

Thank-you this worked adding the sleep to the script. It does slowdown the other services booting and not sure how to combat that but i will have a play with it. Thanks again!

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