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There are no errors in xsession and I don't have a .bash_login or .bash_profile file, so I'm 100% certain neither of those is loaded and thus cancels .profile loading.

When I rename the .profile to .bash_profile and open a new terminal window, it still doesn't load. Everything in the file works (aliases and PATH exports) when I load it manually via ". ~/.profile", but it won't load automatically.

Swader
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1 Answers1

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Looks like this was answered before. You have to be aware of the loading priorities of the files.

[EDIT]

You Have two options:

  1. (Not Recommended) Get your terminal to start as a login shell:
    • open a terminal
    • Go to Edit -> Profile Preferences -> Title and Command
    • activate the "Run Command as a login shell" checkbox This way your .profile is read. But it also messes up the default loading behavior so I would recommend:
  2. Edit or create ~/.bashrc!

Look here for a good explanation about the difference between .bashrc and .bash_profile

Community
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mrcktz
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  • Like I said, the other files do not exist. I only have one profile file, and that's .profile, and even renaming it to .bash_profile does not help. It never even tries to get loaded. – Swader Oct 31 '12 at 12:39
  • see my edit above, hope it helps – mrcktz Oct 31 '12 at 12:58
  • I think the proper way to load ~/.profile is to do so in ~/.xsessionrc. See this answer and my comment: https://askubuntu.com/a/1281956. – nyg Mar 19 '21 at 13:12