init.d script is not starting under virtualbox

Question

The script is in /etc/init.d:

#!/bin/bash

VMUSER=myname
CURRDATE=(`date +"%m-%d-%Y"` + `date +"%H:%M:%S"`)
CURRTIME=(`date +"%X"`)
FILE=/home/myname/log/vm-services.log
VBPATH=/usr/bin


start(){

   echo "Starting VM Guest"
   echo "Starting VM Services on $CURRDATE at $CURRTIME" >> $FILE
   sudo -u $VMUSER $VBPATH/VBoxManage startvm sherbet --type headless
}

stop(){

   echo "Stopping VM Guest"
   echo "Stopping VM Services on $CURRDATE at $CURRTIME" >> $FILE
   sudo -u $VMUSER $VBPATH/VBoxManage controlvm sherbet savestate
}

restart(){
   echo "Restart"
   echo "Restarted on $CURRDATE at $CURRTIME" >> $FILE
}

case "$1" in
 start)
   echo "In Start" >> $FILE
   start
   ;;
 stop)
   stop
   ;;
 restart)
   restart
   ;;
 *)
    echo "Usage: vm-service {start|stop}"
    exit 1
esac

When I reboot the script stop is called. But Ubuntu restarts the start is never called. The script seems to have the correct execute settings:

The echo for shutdown is working cause I see the entry.
I installed the script as follows:

=> sudo update-rc.d vm-services defaults 99 01

I can manually start/stop with no problems: =>/etc/init.d/vm-services start =>/etc/init.d/vm-services stop

Any advise would be appreciated

Update 8/19/2014 - 1:24PMI modified the script above now includes VBPATH that points to the VBoxManage path. But it doesnt work. The stop is always called when it reboots but the start never gets hit. Just sending the string to the file doesnt get hit. On reboot it does it everytime.

Answer 1

OK the problem was because i checked off when i installed to have my home directory encrypted. So when I put the debug option in my script:

~/bin/bash -x

I noticed that when the script tried to run it was saying that the home folder could not be decrypted. So I went ahead and removed the encryption for home folders and restarted the computer and everything works now. The process for removing encryption is several steps that can be found here

Answer 2

I'd be looking at putting a specific assignment to PATH environment variable so that you are assured that the startup script is getting the binaries from the right location. In this case, it could be that the startup environment may not contain the appropriate path the a program you need to execute.