cron alert message

r_jr · 11-20-2011, 11:05 PM

I am not sure where to put this so I am posting the question here.

I am attempting to create a cron script to check the connection to a server using fping. Now this works, but I need to somehow alert the user on the gnome desktop. I tried using gxmessage, but the messagebox never pops up though it does work in a terminal. I was wondering how do I use gxmessage box or some other way to create an alert message as part of a cron script.

corp769 · 11-20-2011, 11:21 PM

Have you tried using zenity? I run Fedora, and have successfully used zenity within cron a few times. Have a look here - http://linux.byexamples.com/archives...og-examples-2/

Cheers,

Josh

D1ver · 11-21-2011, 02:46 AM

I'm not sure if this is related but I needed to add

Code:

export DISPLAY=:0.0

To get a script working as a cron job that used feh to change the background. Maybe gxmessage doesn't know which screen you're asking it to display on?

corp769 · 11-21-2011, 04:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by D1ver

I'm not sure if this is related but I needed to add

Code:

export DISPLAY=:0.0

To get a script working as a cron job that used feh to change the background. Maybe gxmessage doesn't know which screen you're asking it to display on?

After thinking about it, that might be the issue. If running from a standard terminal, of course it wouldn't work, but exporting the DISPLAY environment would definitely tell it to use the first X server that is allocated on the OP's system.

r_jr · 11-22-2011, 02:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by corp769

After thinking about it, that might be the issue. If running from a standard terminal, of course it wouldn't work, but exporting the DISPLAY environment would definitely tell it to use the first X server that is allocated on the OP's system.

Yes, that was it though you are wrong in that it did work from a standard terminal. It only did not work as a cron script. But after adding the export DISPlay:=0 && to my command, it now works. Thanks though.

corp769 · 11-22-2011, 09:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by r_jr

Yes, that was it though you are wrong in that it did work from a standard terminal. It only did not work as a cron script. But after adding the export DISPlay:=0 && to my command, it now works. Thanks though.

I was talking about an actual terminal, and not a virtual terminal, like you would run gnome-terminal with X.