Systemd - missing targets in Yast

In Services Manager in Yast, the only targets I see are associated with shutdown or recovery mode. I only got to this because I was trying to set up a simple samba server, and needed to enable smb and nmb. That page also has a box to set the default systemd target. So I save the settings, and I'll get a runlevel1 equivalent target? Argh.

Some tech detail - using the ARM image on a raspberrypi. I wanted a remotely managed server - and yast ncurses is the best.

On another topic - I'm here because the opensuse forums are down. Perhaps you will see a resurgence of forum activity here as a result. I see Henk and Swerdna have been here in the past - known expertise.

I didn't want to write TGAN yesterday - but more detail would be helpful, I imagine.

Ok - here's the gig. Setup a raspberrypi as a simple samba server. For headless operation. Therefore - opensuse - as it has ncurses yast - great tool. I have a traditional pc box doing this service now. So, I'm used to installing an image that is pretty much already ok to run.

But for ARM chip (r-pi), opensuse has only JeOS, and there is nothing there except the kernel, pretty much. Not even yast. So I get all that running - yast, firewall, samba ok (apparmor module seems to have failed, the ARM repository keeps failing to find the files).

I had to enable smb & nmb in the services config. In the ncurses Services Manager module, Default System Target is part of the Services screen. You are forced to set it to SOMETHING.

The choices I see are

Quote :

halt
kexec
poweroff
reboot
Remote File Systems
Rescue Mode
runlevel0
runlevel1
runlevel6

Nothing else. So, I do my research. From opensuse activedocs:

chapter-8-the-systemd-daemon (I can't post the link, sorry)

I see I'm supposed to copy my desired target

Quote :

Copy the configuration file /lib/systemd/system/graphical.target to /etc/systemd/system/<my_target>.target and adjust it according to your needs.

But there is NOTHING, not a single file, in /lib/systemd/system/. And, the files in /etc/systemd/system/ do NOT precisely correspond to the targets listed in Yast. So, I'm sitting here saying "Well, poop". For some reason, I don't remember why, I wander over to /usr/lib/systemd/system/, and THERE I find a ton of targets, and "*.target.wants" subdirectories. Except a bunch of them are just symlinks that seem to run me around in target circles.

Quote :

Curses! Foiled again! Or - wait . . .

I find a multi-user.target. This is a real file. So, I copy it to /etc/systemd/system. Now it should appear in Yast, right? Wrong - no go.

So, I'm lost. I don't want to mess up this installation by setting multi-user.target as the default from the command line. If I reboot now, I'm not sure that my default target will get me back to a working machine, so I'm afraid to reboot.

Oh - and btw - I've already been to the systemd.directives pages @ freedesktop.org - among more than a few others. Not finding any relief there. Googling "systemd default system target" gets me pages that talk about system targets that I don't seem to have (graphical, etc.). Nowhere do I find mention of what to do when systemd lacks targets.

Like I said, I'm lost. Anybody know anything about getting systemd targets working from scratch?

Ok - writing all this out has helped define the questions that must be answered.

1. Is /etc/systemd/system/ the correct location for systemd working targets?
2. Can a target in /etc/systemd/system/ be a symlink to the original file in /usr/lib/systemd/system? [IF /etc is the correct location, I think the answer to this is yes - since some of the files I have there are symlinks].
3. If the symlink in /etc has "Requires" in the link target, does systemd find these if they are only in /usr/lib/systemd/system/?  E.G. "default.target" in /etc is a link to "runlevel1.target", which "Requires" "basic.target". "Basic.target" only exists in /usr/lib.
4. Can I use yast or zypper to install the correct targets as a package?

Anybody else remember Car 54, Where Are You?

Oo - oo - oo!

I hate it when I search for hours and hours and find no joy. But it does feel so good when I find an answer!

Ok - reviewing all the pages I hit yesterday, I come to one from (gasp!) Red Hat!

7.3 Working with systemd Targets (Redhat Customer Portal)

From there, I get two terminal commands, quite useful.

systemctl get-default

(response = runlevel1.target)

and

systemctl list-units --type target

Code:

UNIT                LOAD  ACTIVE SUB    DESCRIPTION
basic.target        loaded active active Basic System
cryptsetup.target    loaded active active Encrypted Volumes
getty.target        loaded active active Login Prompts
graphical.target    loaded active active Graphical Interface
local-fs-pre.target  loaded active active Local File Systems (Pre)
local-fs.target      loaded active active Local File Systems
multi-user.target    loaded active active Multi-User System
network.target      loaded active active Network
nss-lookup.target    loaded active active Host and Network Name Lookups
paths.target        loaded active active Paths
remote-fs-pre.target loaded active active Remote File Systems (Pre)
remote-fs.target    loaded active active Remote File Systems
rpcbind.target      loaded active active RPC Port Mapper
slices.target        loaded active active Slices
sockets.target      loaded active active Sockets
swap.target          loaded active active Swap
sysinit.target      loaded active active System Initialization
time-sync.target    loaded active active System Time Synchronized
timers.target        loaded active active Timers

LOAD  = Reflects whether the unit definition was properly loaded.
ACTIVE = The high-level unit activation state, i.e. generalization of SUB.
SUB    = The low-level unit activation state, values depend on unit type.

This tells me that Yast is not listing all the available targets. Why, I don't know, but no problem, now I feel confident setting the default from the command line. In section 7.3.3 of that page, the use of /etc and /usr/lib are validated.

Given what systemd has actually done on this installation, and using the RedHat page - which matches witnessed behavior - I think I can safely say that

1. systemd looks at /etc first, and /usr/lib 2nd. Systemd sets "default.target" in /etc as a symlink to a target in /usr/lib
1.a. The targets in /etc act like the old rc.local (more or less). They codify your preferences. The files in /usr/lib/ get updated from time to time as systemd gets updated.
2. The openSUSE doc pages contain an error - pointing to /lib/systemd, when it should point to /usr/lib/systemd.
3. The Yast Services Manager module needs some work still. Managing systemd, at least for default, is better done from the command line.

At least, those are my current conclusions, and the ones I am using today to move forward. If its all upside-down, I'll let you know.

Welcome, CorvusB, to SuseUnbound! Always glad to see new folks here.

Sorry it took so long to acknowledge you. Things have gotten a little slow here, so the forum is not checked as often as we should.

I wish I could be of help to you, but I'm not really one of the sharpest knives here, more of a cheerleader and clown. Haven't seen Swerdna for a long time, unfortunately, and Henk's visits have been less frequent than in the past, though he still checks in occasionally.

Thanks for sharing your problem and especially your progress in researching and solving it. That's how we all can learn with you. Keep checking back, the guys that know something usually check in every couple of days, this is a busy time of year and life for them.

 

Thanks for the welcome! I noticed the lack of activity on the board, but it was late, I had been researching for hours, and was going in circles. I've known Henk and swerdna on the openSUSE forums, years back. Haven't been around there for a while, but I notice swerdna is not as active over there as he used to be, either. Well, maybe life has other things on the plate for him at the mo. I don't even remember the nick I was using there - but it was not this one.

I've had my server running another distro for the past few years, but recently got around to tightening up the installation, and making it truly headless. Which brought me back to openSuse and yast.

For some reason, this morning, the RedHat systemd page was one of the 1st I went to. And I went almost straight to the section where, on re-reading it, I realized I had answers. Missed the significance yesterday with all the reading. The openSuse docs page has a lot of the same info, but not as cleanly laid-out, and that one error made me doubt everything on the page.

SUSEUnbound is a great name. Who knows - maybe with the openSuse official forums closed, business will migrate here. You are still listed as a help source on the openSuse pages - that's how I found you.

Well, I'm glad you found us! I wondered if I might recognize you by a different nickname.

Between the opening of the official OpenSuse forums, and what seems to be that OpenSuse just works (at least it has for me), it seems the need for this forum has diminished over the years, and too many of the "old-timers" have drifted away. The dangers of centralization appears to have occurred, if the official forums are down, and there is no other place for people to go to seek help. I see that build.opensuse.org is down, do you know if the forum outage is related? Was everything on one server?

I'm glad you seem to have your problem sorted out, and that you shared how you did it. Having a central place for people to seek help is a good idea, until that place becomes unavailable. Hopefully they will be back up soon, but I think having alternate places to go is valuable also, and people like you that can state a problem clearly, and the solution that was found just make it more so.

I hope you'll continue to drop by occasionally. The more activity we have, especially from knowledgeable people (unlike me), the more valuable this forum will be at times when the official forum has problems. (Which may be rare, but can, no will, occur.)

 

This is really really strange. I landed on the opensuse forums today while getting my samba config up. They are open for business apparently. I SWEAR I went there yesterday, intending to log in, and got some security bulletin that said they were closed due to a vBulletin hack, and would be down until further notice! I go there today, and I can not even find that notice, or a thread like that. Very very strange.
  

I'm wondering if somehow I chanced on an outdated issue sticky, or an old April fool's joke, maybe? Whatever, I was convinced it was current, and I was s.o.o.l.

Over there my nick is spokesinger - I had to go look it up. I used to race bicycles, and that nick goes back to Novell, when I registered there back in the 90's.