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Linux @lemmy.ml HotsauceHurricane @lemmy.one 4 mo. ago

Cannot start spotifyd.service

All my ducks seem to be in order and the correct configs in the right place. But i keep getting this message. As you can see the file exists. It is not empty, but systemctl cannot find it. Any help would be very very appreciated.

•fedora 40 xfce spin •kernel 6.9.9.200 •fucking chromebook

35 comments

Why are you creating a system service for a user application? It will run Spotify as root unless you override the user. Did you know you can add your own services for your user at ~/.config/systemd/user/?

Anyway, your method to add the service seems correct (create a file and reload the daemon), so I suspect it might refuse to load the file due to a syntax error in the service. Also perhaps compare the file permissions with the other files in the systemd folder.
- Ill give it a look tomorrow when i sart my nonsense up again.
  
  If you just want it to auto-start at login, you could create a symlink from the .desktop file to ~/.config/autostart.
  
  Something like ln ~/.local/applications/spotify.desktop ~/.config/autostart (or ln /usr/share/applications/spotify.desktop ~/.config/autostart if that's where it installed to).
  
  I believe most DE's will pick this up automatically.
- Additionally if you're looking for it to start on boot without logging in, you might find the loginctl enable-linger command to be of use. Maybe along with a Restart=on-failure policy in the service file if this is for a headless unit or something
Why are you running Spotify as a service? I don't think that's what they mean by SaaS!
Why does Spotify need a daemon?
- It's an unofficial open-source daemon used by alternative Spotify clients. I used it once for a terminal Spotify client. It's a pretty neat piece of software.
  
  Its pretty rad. I used it to run spotify-tui on another computer.
You need to move the service file to the right directory, for starters.
- I have. Other comment explains.
Looks like it's in a directory called contrib. Should just be in /etc/systemd/system
- I moved it to /system shortly after this and tried again. Still nothing. Same result.
For some reason you're trying to install it as a system service so I suspect you need to start it with sudo and probably do the daemon reload with sudo. Not entirely sure its in the right folder but it might be fine.
You can also try systemctl list-unit as a way to debug if its getting found by systemd.

Fwiw I have spotifyd installed as a user service in ~/.config/systemd/user that way I can start and stop it with systemctl --user instead of sudo systemctl. This is important because spotifyd will disconnect and need to be restarted after inactivity.
I don't know much about systemd, but i assume the file should be owned by root? It looks like it isn't, so try chown root:root spotifyd.service
- I’ll try that when i get back to it.
- Nope, don't run Spotify as root. That's a bad idea.
  
  I'm not sure spotifyd is just spotify (Edit: I checked, its some kind of spotify client meant to be run as a daemon? No idea what permissions that needs)
  
  And the user that executes a service isn't determined by who owns the service file, there is a user option in the service config
Where is the service file located on your system?

Did you create it with sudo systemctl edit --force --full, or did you use a text editor (or was it automatically generated by an installer)?
- I made the file this way.
  
  Cd /etc/systemd/system && touch spotifyd.service
  
  Sudo nano -l spotifyd.service
  
  Wrote, saved and quit. Then the commands above. I havent tried sudo systemctl edit —force —full
  
  You surely need to explicitly cause systemd to process changes after writing to a file. I would be very surprised if it reacted to file system changes automatically.
  
  For example, I recall that I need to execute a command like systemctl daemon-reload after editing a service file: https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/364782/what-does-systemctl-daemon-reload-do
  
  You might get more useful information from resources like https://www.man7.org/linux/man-pages/man1/systemctl.1.html
  
  My knowledge is limited, but you should be using that command to create service files, from what I understand. There's some extra stuff that happens in the background (like putting symlinks in the correct places) after you write out the changes using that command.
if it’s in the correct place, correct read permissions/ownership, etc i’ve noticed that this is also the error that’s thrown when selinux denies the read: in my case i’d created the service file in my home directory, moved it, and because of that it was tagged incorrectly

i’m on my phone and don’t have time to lookup the resolution or how to check, but perhaps someone else can add that detail
- Ill try remaking it in the correct directory and see if that helps. Thanks!
What's in your service file? May be you entered some parameters wrong
- Its the same service file that i used on another computer that had spotifyd working. So i dont think the file is incorrect, i’ll post the file when i get back to my computer.

Figured it out finally. Thanks for all the help.

I mean, you have it right there, it doesn't find the Systemd unit file.
I think you need to set the execute bit on your service file.

sudo chmod +x <your service file>
- Nope, they should not be executable.
Lennart's Cancer strikes again.
- ?
  
  It's just an old rant, some people can't get over the fact systemd exists
- Take my upvote.

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