Cron job: how to run a script that requires to open display?

Question

I want to set up a cron job to run a python script, but it gives me this error:

RuntimeError: could not open display

This is because I imp

Answer 1

You could also run your application in a framebuffer using xvfb or a similar tool:

or sudo apt-get install xvfb

Usage:

xvfb :1 -screen 0 800x600x8 & # WIDTHxHEIGHTxCOLORDEPTH
export DISPLAY=":1"
java application_name.jar 

or shorter:

xvfb-run -a -e /tmp/some/log/file.log /home/user/application.run

-a chooses a display number automatically, -e file specifies a logfile for error messages.