RSS Feed for systemd - James Stone's BlogBlog posts tagged with systemdhttps://jamesst.one/Borked systemd unitshttps://jamesst.one/posts/bad-settings/https://jamesst.one/posts/bad-settings/<![CDATA[<p>Previously when I have been debugging systemd services I have used: <code>systemctl status --failed</code> to get me all of the failed services</p> <p>However that, as in my case today, did not return any failures, yet I knew a service was not working.</p> <p>It turned out the service was not working as it had a bad setting:</p> <pre class="astro-code github-dark" style="background-color:#24292e;color:#e1e4e8; overflow-x: auto;" tabindex="0" data-language="shell"><code><span class="line"><span style="color:#B392F0">❯</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> systemctl</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> status</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> home-manager-james.service</span></span> <span class="line"><span style="color:#B392F0">○</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> home-manager-james.service</span></span> <span class="line"><span style="color:#B392F0"> Loaded:</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> bad-setting</span><span style="color:#E1E4E8"> (Reason: </span><span style="color:#9ECBFF">Unit</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> home-manager-james.service</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> has</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> a</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> bad</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> unit</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> file</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> setting.</span><span style="color:#E1E4E8">)</span></span> <span class="line"><span style="color:#B392F0"> Active:</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> inactive</span><span style="color:#E1E4E8"> (dead)</span></span> <span class="line"></span> <span class="line"><span style="color:#B392F0">dec</span><span style="color:#79B8FF"> 09</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> 13:53:44</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> darter</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> hm-activate-james[1569]:</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> Creating</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> home</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> file</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> links</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> in</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> /home/james</span></span> <span class="line"><span style="color:#B392F0">dec</span><span style="color:#79B8FF"> 09</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> 13:53:44</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> darter</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> hm-activate-james[1569]:</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> Activating</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> onFilesChange</span></span> <span class="line"><span style="color:#B392F0">dec</span><span style="color:#79B8FF"> 09</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> 13:53:44</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> darter</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> hm-activate-james[1569]:</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> Activating</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> reloadSystemd</span></span> <span class="line"><span style="color:#B392F0">dec</span><span style="color:#79B8FF"> 09</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> 13:53:44</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> darter</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> systemd[1]:</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> User</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> systemd</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> daemon</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> not</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> running.</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> Skipping</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> reload.</span></span> <span class="line"><span style="color:#B392F0">dec</span><span style="color:#79B8FF"> 09</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> 13:53:44</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> darter</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> systemd[1]:</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> home-manager-james.service:</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> Deactivated</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> successfully.</span></span> <span class="line"><span style="color:#B392F0">dec</span><span style="color:#79B8FF"> 09</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> 13:53:44</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> darter</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> systemd[1]:</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> Finished</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> Home</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> Manager</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> environment</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> for</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> james.</span></span> <span class="line"><span style="color:#B392F0">dec</span><span style="color:#79B8FF"> 09</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> 13:53:44</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> darter</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> systemd[1]:</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> home-manager-james.service:</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> Consumed</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> 804ms</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> CPU</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> time,</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> 66.9M</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> memory</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> peak,</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> 112.7M</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> read</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> from</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> disk.</span></span> <span class="line"><span style="color:#B392F0">dec</span><span style="color:#79B8FF"> 09</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> 13:56:16</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> darter</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> systemd[1]:</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> home-manager-james.service:</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> Service</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> has</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> no</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> ExecStart=,</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> ExecStop=,</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> or</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> SuccessAction=.</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> Refusing.</span></span> <span class="line"><span style="color:#B392F0">dec</span><span style="color:#79B8FF"> 09</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> 14:01:26</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> darter</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> systemd[1]:</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> home-manager-james.service:</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> Service</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> has</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> no</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> ExecStart=,</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> ExecStop=,</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> or</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> SuccessAction=.</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> Refusing.</span></span> <span class="line"><span style="color:#B392F0">dec</span><span style="color:#79B8FF"> 09</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> 14:02:36</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> darter</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> systemd[1]:</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> home-manager-james.service:</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> Service</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> has</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> no</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> ExecStart=,</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> ExecStop=,</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> or</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> SuccessAction=.</span><span style="color:#9ECBFF"> Refusing.</span></span></code></pre> <p>I am still not sure how to identify these services without directly checking their status, like I did above.</p>]]>Tue, 09 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT