Get Bash instead of /bin/sh in a VNC session started by cron

Question

When I open a terminal (e.g. lxsession or xterm) in LXDE which is running in a VNC session the shell is

$ echo $SHELL
/bin/sh

However, I want my default shell which is /bin/bash to use my .bashrc file.

How can I get it?

The problem seems related to the fact that I start VNC at boot time via my crontab entry

@reboot vncserver &

If I start another VNC session from a shell I have a Bash shell as expected in this VNC session. Of course at login via SSH I get a Bash, too.

score 5 · Answer 1 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:56

It seems like the problem originates form cron using /bin/sh and not the users SHELL default. I found other people having the same problem at

As a result /bin/sh is the default SHELL when VNC is started by cron.

My solution is to start my vncserver by cron through a script in which I export the SHELL variable first like this:

#!/bin/bash
export SHELL=/bin/bash
vncserver

This solves the problem.

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 31 '20 at 09:41

3

I was able to fix the issue by adding following line in my ~/.vnc/xstartup :

export SHELL=/bin/bash

answered Mar 31 '20 at 09:41

Tymek

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 29 '24 at 18:02

2

I have solved the issue by passing SHELL variable inline inside a cron entry:

@reboot SHELL=/bin/bash vncserver

answered Sep 29 '24 at 18:02

Asmoox

score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Jan 13 '17 at 02:26

AFAIK the default login shell is used even in lxterminal.

You can check what your default is by looking at the /etc/passwd file for you user e.g. cat /etc/passwd | grep pi for most Pi users.

If you wish to change your login shell use the chsh command.

NOTE /bin/sh is a symlink to the default system shell; normally /etc/dash and should not be changed

4 Answers4