April 2022 Raspberry Pi Update & Automatic Login

Fig 1. Advanced Options Dialog of Raspberry Pi Imager v1.7.2

The security-focused April Update to Raspberry Pi OS Bullseye and Raspberry Imager has introduced a few significant changes to the process of preparing bootable media for new installations. In my opinion, the changes are timely and necessary. Kudos to the Raspberry Pi Foundation for all their hard work!

Also, as a bonus, the Raspberry Pi Imager v1.7.2 simplifies seeding fresh microSD cards. The newly introduced Advanced options dialog allows you to prefill values and set options enabling SSH on the first boot, configure wireless networking, specify timezone and enter a unique superuser name and password. It is all good so far. But there is one side effect that I stumbled upon just a few days ago...

I run my Raspberry Pis headless. However, that day, I was debugging an issue with one of my Raspberries that prompted me to attach a monitor. There, on the screen, I observed that the superuser was automatically logged in to the console. I found it puzzling, considering that the April update was about improving security (albeit cyber-security), according to the official blog post. I also want to note that this is a new change: the default Bullseye behavior had "automatic login" turned off before the April update.

Searching the internet led me to this issue report. So hopefully, the resolution won't take long, but in the meanwhile, let me show you the steps to disable automatic login manually.

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Fig 2. Disabling Automatic Login via raspi-config. Choosing System Options

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Fig 3. Disabling Automatic Login via raspi-config. Choosing Boot / Auto Login

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Fig 4. Disabling Automatic Login via raspi-config. Choosing Console

• From the console or while logged in via SSH execute:

  $ sudo raspi-config

• Navigate to 1 System Options -> S5 Boot / Auto Login

• Select B1 Console and press Return / Enter. raspi-config will return to the initial screen (Fig 2.)

• Press Tab twice and follow up with another Return / Enter key press.

• raspi-config will show reboot prompt screen. Confirm the reboot for the configuration change to take effect.

Done!

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