Improvement to script to start Firefox when an internet connection is available

[fixit7]

I forgot the place, other than here, where this came from.

I made an improvement.

#!/bin/bash

# Help from https://linux.org,

# Define a reliable host to ping
HOST="google.com"

# Number of pings to send
COUNT=1

# Check for internet connectivity using ping
if ping -c "$COUNT" "$HOST" &> /dev/null; then
echo "Internet connection detected. Launching Firefox..."
# Show a visual message on the desktop
gxmessage -fg red -font 'sans 20' -timeout 5 "Starting Firefox."

export DISPLAY=:0.0
firefox

else
echo "No internet connection detected."
fi

 

[CaffeineAddict]

I'd prefer to regex output of sudo systemctl status NetworkManager.
One line should say Connected to wireless network <name>, if you can capture that you know if there is connectivity.

However more reliable method should be to somehow interact with systemd services, e.g. to write your own service.

 

[wizardfromoz]

...e.g. to write your own service.

I did that for the OP in another of his Threads.

Cheers

Wiz

 

[wizardfromoz]

I did that for the OP in another of his Threads.

My bad, it was at my thread here

https://www.linux.org/threads/your-browser-on-demand-a-couple-of-options-wizards-corner.58359/

which was written with the OP in mind, but to benefit others as well.

 

[fixit7]

I'd prefer to regex output of sudo systemctl status NetworkManager.
One line should say Connected to wireless network <name>, if you can capture that you know if there is connectivity.

However more reliable method should be to somehow interact with systemd services, e.g. to write your own service.

Thanks a lot. I will study this.

sudo systemctl status NetworkManager
● NetworkManager.service - Network Manager
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/NetworkManager.service; enabled; vendo>
Active: active (running) since Sat 2025-10-18 21:29:20 CDT; 1 day 4h ago
Docs: man:NetworkManager(8)
Main PID: 820 (NetworkManager)
Tasks: 3 (limit: 8113)
Memory: 9.3M
CPU: 1min 17.071s
CGroup: /system.slice/NetworkManager.service
└─820 /usr/sbin/NetworkManager --no-daemon