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cdauth
Asked: 2024-02-01 01:01:28 +0800 CST

systemctl --enable enables socket instead of service

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As it is common, lxd provides two systemd units: lxd.socket and lxd.service. When lxd.socket is started, it starts lxd.service as soon as any application (such as lxc) tries to access the lxd daemon.

I would like lxd to start on boot, without having to run any command. However, when I try to enable lxd.service, it enables lxd.socket instead:

# systemctl enable lxd.service
Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/sockets.target.wants/lxd.socket → /usr/lib/systemd/system/lxd.socket.

What is going on here? How can I enable lxd.service?

The system is running Fedora 39. These are the unit files:

/usr/lib/systemd/system/lxd.service:

[Unit]
Description=LXD - main daemon
After=network-online.target openvswitch-switch.service lxcfs.service lxd.socket
Requires=network-online.target lxcfs.service lxd.socket
Documentation=man:lxd(1)

[Service]
Environment=LXD_DOCUMENTATION=/usr/share/doc/lxd-doc/html
Environment=LXD_OVMF_PATH=/usr/share/edk2/ovmf
Environment=LXD_UI=/usr/share/lxd-ui/ui
ExecStart=/usr/bin/lxd --group lxd
ExecStartPost=/usr/bin/lxd waitready --timeout=600
KillMode=process
TimeoutStartSec=600s
TimeoutStopSec=30s
Restart=on-failure
LimitNOFILE=1048576
LimitNPROC=infinity
TasksMax=infinity

[Install]
Also=lxd-containers.service lxd.socket

/usr/lib/systemd/system/lxd.socket:

[Unit]
Description=LXD - unix socket
Documentation=man:lxd(1)

[Socket]
ListenStream=/var/lib/lxd/unix.socket
SocketGroup=lxd
SocketMode=0660
Service=lxd.service

[Install]
WantedBy=sockets.target
systemd

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    The behavior you're seeing is driven by the Also keyword in the service unit, which you can read about here.

    Because the service unit does not specify a WantedBy (or RequiredBy) directive in the [Install] section, this Also means effectively "instead": when you systemctl enable lxd.service, instead enable lxd-containers.service and lxd.socket.

    You could try simply adding WantedBy=default.target to the [Install] section, so that the lxd service is started automatically at boot. Don't forget to systemctl daemon-reload after editing the unit (or after creating a drop-in config).

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