[SOLVED] Adding terminal operations to menu.xml: Unable to find shell

schwim · 2018-10-26 15:16:30

Hi there guys!

I need to open a terminal window(that needs to stay open" and run a command in it to start a game server. I keep getting the error "Unable to find shell" when I try it, however.

            <item label="Start Local Server">
                <action name="Execute">
                    <command>
                        <command>x-terminal-emulator -T 'Local FiveM Server' -e "cd /home/schwim/fivem/server-data && ../server/run.sh +exec server.cfg"</command>
                    </command>
                </action>
            </item>

I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. Could someone straighten me out?

Thanks for your time!

Last edited by schwim (2018-10-29 02:14:33)

damo · 2018-10-26 17:13:11

You need to start a shell in x-terminal-emulator first, before shell commands will run. The general format is

x-terminal-emulator -e /bin/bash -c "<your command here>;bash"

The trailing "bash" keeps the terminal open, and you would need to escape any quotes in your commands.

schwim · 2018-10-28 01:19:21

Thanks for the help, Damo!

I tried but my double ampersand isn't registering, causing bash to think the whole line is the cd command. How do I tell it that there are two separate commands?

x-terminal-emulator -e /bin/bash -c "\"cd /home/schwim/fivem/server-data && ../server/run.sh +exec server.cfg\";bash"

johnraff · 2018-10-28 02:24:42

I think you might have too much quoting there. Try:

x-terminal-emulator -e /bin/bash -c "cd /home/schwim/fivem/server-data && ../server/run.sh +exec server.cfg;bash"

schwim · 2018-10-28 02:28:14

Hmm, with that in place, it just opens a terminal and no command prints to screen at all.

x-terminal-emulator -e /bin/bash -c "cd /home/schwim/fivem/server-data && ../server/run.sh +exec server.cfg;bash"

damo · 2018-10-28 08:49:01

With multiple commands I put them in a script, then call that in menu.xml. That way you don't need to worry about escaping characters etc.

ohnonot · 2018-10-28 09:40:14

openbox' xml files do not like '&'.
i'm surprised you didn't get any errors after reconfiguring.
they need to be escaped like this: '&'

here's an example of a fairly complex chain of commands that works in rc.xml:

<command>
dash -c 'wmctrl -l | grep -F "$(printf "0x%08x" "$(xdotool getwindowfocus)")" | grep Geany &amp;&amp; sleep 0.1 &amp;&amp; xdotool keyup Super_L Super_R key Alt_L+d t'
</command>

but it's definitely safer to simply put it in a script and call that instead.

johnraff · 2018-10-29 02:10:14

^A bonus of using a script is that you don't need to reconfigure openbox every time you change something.

schwim · 2018-10-29 02:15:14

Thank you all so much for your help. I just didn't think to use a script to handle this. It worked fantastically.

Thanks again!

#1 2018-10-26 15:16:30

[SOLVED] Adding terminal operations to menu.xml: Unable to find shell

#2 2018-10-26 17:13:11

Re: [SOLVED] Adding terminal operations to menu.xml: Unable to find shell

#3 2018-10-28 01:19:21

Re: [SOLVED] Adding terminal operations to menu.xml: Unable to find shell

#4 2018-10-28 02:24:42

Re: [SOLVED] Adding terminal operations to menu.xml: Unable to find shell

#5 2018-10-28 02:28:14

Re: [SOLVED] Adding terminal operations to menu.xml: Unable to find shell

#6 2018-10-28 08:49:01

Re: [SOLVED] Adding terminal operations to menu.xml: Unable to find shell

#7 2018-10-28 09:40:14

Re: [SOLVED] Adding terminal operations to menu.xml: Unable to find shell

#8 2018-10-29 02:10:14

Re: [SOLVED] Adding terminal operations to menu.xml: Unable to find shell

#9 2018-10-29 02:15:14

Re: [SOLVED] Adding terminal operations to menu.xml: Unable to find shell

Board footer