Run on startup setting not saved

[Lakis01]

v1.1.6+claude0.14.10 installed on Ubuntu 24.04 through .deb file.

When I check run on startup, there is no option to apply settings or ok, but when I switch to another window like extensions, it is unchecked again. Is this due to lacking root privilege?

[aaddrick]

Hey @Lakis01!

When I checkout the log at ~/claude-desktop-launcher.log I see

Error occurred in handler for '$eipc_message$_77d4e567-c444-4f71-92e9-9f2fbad120fd_$_claude.settings_$_Startup_$_isStartupOnLoginEnabled': Error: Result from method "isStartupOnLoginEnabled" in interface "Startup" failed to pass validation
    at /usr/lib/claude-desktop/app.asar/.vite/build/index.js:42:9658
    at process.processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:105:5)
    at async Session.<anonymous> (node:electron/js2c/browser_init:2:107270)

Checking out the handler in index.js

t.ipc.handle(
    "$eipc_message$_77d4e567-c444-4f71-92e9-9f2fbad120fd_$_claude.settings_$_Startup_$_isStartupOnLoginEnabled",
    async (n) => {
      var a;
      if (!ot(n))
        throw new Error(
          `Incoming "isStartupOnLoginEnabled" call on interface "Startup" from '${(a = n.senderFrame) == null ? void 0 : a.url}' did not pass origin validation`
        );
      const i = await e.isStartupOnLoginEnabled();
      if (typeof i != "boolean")
        throw new Error(
          'Result from method "isStartupOnLoginEnabled" in interface "Startup" failed to pass validation'
        );
      return i;
    }
  ),

The error Result from method "isStartupOnLoginEnabled" in interface "Startup" failed to pass validation is popping up because e.isStartupOnLoginEnabled() isn't returning a boolean.

I've renamed some variables below from the minified originals.

isStartupOnLoginEnabled() {
  if (process.env.CLAUDE_AVOID_READING_LOGING_ITEM_SETTINGS) return !1;
  logger.debug("Checking login setting");
  const loginSettings = electron.app.getLoginItemSettings({ path: returnExecPath() });
  return (
    logger.debug("Login setting: %o", loginSettings),
    loginSettings.openAtLogin || loginSettings.executableWillLaunchAtLogin
  );
},

The original error is crashing out in the handler section, which means isStartupOnLoginEnabled() isn't faulting hard.

Running through devtools debug, loginSettings.openAtLogin evaluates to false and loginSettings.executableWillLaunchAtLogin evaluates to undefined.

executableWillLaunchAtLogin is a windows only electron environmental variable. Since we're using the windows executable as our base, this doesn't exist for us.

Apparently in javascript, false || undefined returns undefined. Alternatively, undefined || false returns false. Who knew? Stack Overflow Link

So that logic back in the handler is getting undefined returned to it when it expects a bool because we're trying to evaluate a windows electron environmental variable.

Updated the app.asar.contents/frame-fix-wrapper.js script created in ./build.sh to monkey patch in a false return for executableWillLaunchAtLogin.

// Fix app.getLoginItemSettings to always return executableWillLaunchAtLogin as boolean
if (module.app && module.app.getLoginItemSettings) {
  console.log('[Frame Fix] Patching app.getLoginItemSettings');
  const originalGetLoginItemSettings = module.app.getLoginItemSettings;
  module.app.getLoginItemSettings = function(...args) {
    const result = originalGetLoginItemSettings.apply(this, args);
    if (result.executableWillLaunchAtLogin === undefined) {
      result.executableWillLaunchAtLogin = false;
    }
    console.log('[Frame Fix] getLoginItemSettings result:', result);
    return result;
  };
}

After rebuilding and debugging again, isStartupOnLoginEnabled() returned false correctly. The original error went away, but it didn't actually solve the core issue :(

After that let down, I googled "electron openAtLogin Linux" (which is where I should've started...) and found "Add openAtLogin support for Linux? #15198" with a final update that didn't include support from 2024.

All that said, you'll have to configure autostart via your system. I'm not commiting the monkey patch, but it's here in case I ever need it in the future.

I'll leave this open in case anyone else has feedback.

Sorry we couldn't bottom it out!

[Lakis01]

Thank you very much for your efforts! Yes, I configured autostart via the system in the mean time.

If it is possible to solve, I second the issue with mcp servers enabling the extensions pointing to the wrong location for node.js. Manually configuring the mcp servers with the help of claude worked via npx.

Also, in the default repositories for the current Ubuntu LTS (24.04), an outdated version of node.js is included (v18)

You might want to include the suggestion of adding the ppa for node.js (v22.x)
cd ~
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_22.x -o nodesource_setup.sh

Thank you again very much for your efforts and the active development :)

[aaddrick]

No problem at all!

Thanks for the callout on the other items. I'm working through a refactor to break the script into smaller and understandable blocks. I have the node version corrected there. Hoping to have it up this weekend.

[Lakis01]

Another very minor issue that did not want to create another issue for: The program keeps wobbling in the programs bar on the left in the gnome desktop on Ubuntu. This usually indicates that a program has just been launched an not brought to the foreground yet, but even when I switch to claude (the wobbling will stop while its in the foreground) and then switch to another program, it just keeps wobbling. Not an important issue, obviously, but wanted to let you know.

[lizthegrey]

Adding a note on this one: Electron's app.getLoginItemSettings() / setLoginItemSettings() are deliberately no-ops on Linux (electron/electron#15198 has been open since 2018), which is why the toggle round-trips to unchecked. The Linux-native fix is not to wait on Electron to implement openAtLogin, but to bypass the API entirely and go through the XDG Autostart spec: writing (and deleting) ~/.config/autostart/claude-desktop.desktop. Every mainstream DE I've checked (GNOME, KDE, XFCE, Cinnamon, MATE, LXQt) honours it.

The monkey-patch you prototyped in frame-fix-wrapper.js is almost there — it just needs to become read+write instead of "always return false". Rough sketch, building on what you had:

// In frame-fix-wrapper.js, Linux-only
const fs = require('fs');
const path = require('path');
const os = require('os');

const AUTOSTART_PATH = path.join(
  os.homedir(), '.config', 'autostart', 'claude-desktop.desktop'
);

const AUTOSTART_CONTENT = `[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Name=Claude
Exec=claude-desktop --hidden
Icon=claude-desktop
Terminal=false
Categories=Utility;
X-GNOME-Autostart-enabled=true
`;

if (process.platform === 'linux' && module.app) {
  const origGet = module.app.getLoginItemSettings.bind(module.app);
  module.app.getLoginItemSettings = function (...args) {
    const result = origGet(...args);
    result.openAtLogin = fs.existsSync(AUTOSTART_PATH);
    result.executableWillLaunchAtLogin = result.openAtLogin;  // satisfies the handler's boolean check too
    return result;
  };

  const origSet = module.app.setLoginItemSettings.bind(module.app);
  module.app.setLoginItemSettings = function (opts = {}) {
    if (typeof opts.openAtLogin === 'boolean') {
      fs.mkdirSync(path.dirname(AUTOSTART_PATH), { recursive: true });
      if (opts.openAtLogin) {
        fs.writeFileSync(AUTOSTART_PATH, AUTOSTART_CONTENT);
      } else {
        try { fs.unlinkSync(AUTOSTART_PATH); } catch (e) { if (e.code !== 'ENOENT') throw e; }
      }
    }
    return origSet(opts);  // let Electron's impl run too; it's a no-op on Linux but doesn't hurt
  };
}

This also fixes the "failed to pass validation" error you quoted in your earlier comment as a side effect, because the handler gets a real boolean back.

Two open questions before a PR:

1. Exec= line — claude-desktop --hidden is the intent (start minimised on login so it's ready for schedulers/tray but doesn't steal focus). Does the current launcher honour --hidden? If not, the autostart entry should probably be claude-desktop and we accept the window popping up at login, or we add a --hidden flag in the launcher that invokes the tray-minimised startup path.
2. This is adjacent to, but independent of, keep-running-in-background (I've filed that separately). The autostart fix makes the cron-scheduler survive reboots; keep-running-in-background makes it survive window-close. Users probably want both.

Happy to put up a PR against scripts/frame-fix-wrapper.js if you want.

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Written by Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) via Claude Code