Are systemd user services feasible on CentOS?

resuni · 05-22-2016, 03:41 PM

I've spent a few hours now trying to get a systemd user instance to run. On a fresh install of CentOS 7, when I try to run a systemctl --user command as a user, this is what happens:

Code:

$ systemctl --user status
Failed to get D-Bus connection: No such file or directory

Compared to my Arch Linux machine:

Code:

$ systemctl --user status
● snowflake
    State: running
     Jobs: 0 queued
   Failed: 0 units
    Since: Sun 2016-04-24 10:54:10 MDT; 4 weeks 0 days ago
   CGroup: /user.slice/user-1000.slice/user@1000.service
           ├─dbus.service
           │ ├─ 3633 /usr/bin/dbus-daemon --session --address=systemd: --nofork 
           │ ├─ 3641 /usr/lib/GConf/gconfd-2
           │ ├─ 5587 /usr/lib/dconf/dconf-service
           │ └─27011 /usr/lib/xfce4/xfconf/xfconfd
           ├─at-spi-dbus-bus.service
           │ ├─ 3647 /usr/lib/at-spi2-core/at-spi-bus-launcher
           │ ├─22313 /usr/bin/dbus-daemon --config-file=/usr/share/defaults/at-s
           │ └─22315 /usr/lib/at-spi2-core/at-spi2-registryd --use-gnome-session
           ├─pulseaudio.service
           │ └─4764 /usr/bin/pulseaudio --daemonize=no
           └─init.scope
             ├─3512 /usr/lib/systemd/systemd --user
             └─3517 (sd-pam)

When Googling around, I found very few results where CentOS users were trying to use systemd user services. In fact, I can't find any mention of user-specific systemd instances in any official Red Hat or CentOS documentation. The first search results you get for "centos systemd user instance" is the systemd/User page on the Arch wiki. When I search for my problem specifically, I get results from the Arch forums. Most of the solutions from these threads refer to an old version of the Arch wiki systemd/User page saying that dbus.socket and dbus.service files need to be created in /etc/systemd/user/. I pulled up the old version of this page from the page history and followed the instructions, which had no effect on my problem. This enforces my belief that different distributions seem to implement systemd very differently, which leaves me at a dead end since the only potential solutions I can find are from the Arch forums.

The only person I found trying to do this on CentOS was on a mailing list, where another user mentioned that CentOS removed this functionality: https://marc.ttias.be/systemd-devel/...3/msg00100.php

Has anyone gotten this working on CentOS? Or should I be looking to do this on a different distribution entirely?

ferrari · 05-22-2016, 05:06 PM

I haven't had time to research this, but perhaps the systemd version is relevant here.

Code:

systemctl --version

So, maybe you need to consider upgrading CentOS to latest version?

resuni · 05-22-2016, 06:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ferrari

I haven't had time to research this, but perhaps the systemd version is relevant here.

Code:

systemctl --version

So, maybe you need to consider upgrading CentOS to latest version?

This is the output on a fresh install of CentOS 7 before a yum update:

Code:

$ systemctl --version
systemd 219
+PAM +AUDIT +SELINUX +IMA -APPARMOR +SMACK +SYSVINIT +UTMP +LIBCRYPTSETUP +GCRYPT +GNUTLS +ACL +XZ -LZ4 -SECCOMP +BLKID +ELFUTILS +KMOD +IDN
$ systemctl --user status
Failed to get D-Bus connection: No such file or directory

Here is the output after yum update (which did include systemd updates):

Code:

Updated:
  chkconfig.x86_64 0:1.3.61-5.el7_2.1
  device-mapper.x86_64 7:1.02.107-5.el7_2.2
  device-mapper-libs.x86_64 7:1.02.107-5.el7_2.2
  glibc.x86_64 0:2.17-106.el7_2.6
  glibc-common.x86_64 0:2.17-106.el7_2.6
  kernel-tools.x86_64 0:3.10.0-327.18.2.el7
  kernel-tools-libs.x86_64 0:3.10.0-327.18.2.el7
  kpartx.x86_64 0:0.4.9-85.el7_2.4
  libgudev1.x86_64 0:219-19.el7_2.9
  libndp.x86_64 0:1.2-6.el7_2
  libunwind.x86_64 2:1.1-5.el7_2.2
  pcre.x86_64 0:8.32-15.el7_2.1
  python-perf.x86_64 0:3.10.0-327.18.2.el7
  systemd.x86_64 0:219-19.el7_2.9
  systemd-libs.x86_64 0:219-19.el7_2.9
  systemd-sysv.x86_64 0:219-19.el7_2.9

Code:

$ systemctl --version
systemd 219
+PAM +AUDIT +SELINUX +IMA -APPARMOR +SMACK +SYSVINIT +UTMP +LIBCRYPTSETUP +GCRYPT +GNUTLS +ACL +XZ -LZ4 -SECCOMP +BLKID +ELFUTILS +KMOD +IDN
$ systemctl --user status
Failed to get D-Bus connection: No such file or directory

After a yum update and reboot:

Code:

$ systemctl --version
systemd 219
+PAM +AUDIT +SELINUX +IMA -APPARMOR +SMACK +SYSVINIT +UTMP +LIBCRYPTSETUP +GCRYPT +GNUTLS +ACL +XZ -LZ4 -SECCOMP +BLKID +ELFUTILS +KMOD +IDN
$ systemctl --user status
Failed to get D-Bus connection: No such file or directory

Doug G · 05-22-2016, 09:16 PM

I just checked my centos7 server and --user isn't listed as an option in the systemctl man page, where it is in the man page on fedora 23. I get the same error messsage you do on centos7

gabx · 01-23-2018, 04:03 AM

I came across same issue when setting a Fedora server, coming from Arch.
Did you find any clean solution?

sakbhav · 12-06-2018, 04:35 AM

It looks like RHEL has removed the --user feature from version 7 which is applicable for Cent OS 7 too.

See: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1173278

ondoho · 12-06-2018, 05:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sakbhav

It looks like RHEL has removed the --user feature from version 7 which is applicable for Cent OS 7 too.
See: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1173278

this thread is from 2016, and the bug report is from 2014 (!).
please show us where this is still relevant today.
i could not find that information from the bug report.

sakbhav · 12-06-2018, 10:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ondoho

this thread is from 2016, and the bug report is from 2014 (!).
please show us where this is still relevant today.
i could not find that information from the bug report.

Well, the bug report was updated in Sep 2018 and in one of the solutions (https://access.redhat.com/solutions/3461241) RHEL has claimed that systemctl --user is not implemented in any of the EL7 versions.

Also, as per the comment (which is coming from Lennart himself :P) in https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1173278 This feature is not going to be implemented in RHEL 7.

ondoho · 12-07-2018, 01:10 AM

^ ok, thanks for the clarification.

i don't know the impact on RHEL, but i can assure you that systemd-user has worked on my system for a long while now.