Missing Instance name on ubuntu install

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1

I installed syncthing on xubuntu 19.10 Eaon Ermine On an 2011 era Macbook air x86_64

sudo /bin/bash
apt install syncthing

…

root@macbook:/home/julian/Desktop# systemctl list-unit-files | grep syncthing
syncthing-resume.service                   enabled        
syncthing@.service                         disabled       
root@macbook:/home/julian/Desktop# systemctl start syncthing@
Failed to start syncthing@.service: Unit name syncthing@.service is missing the instance name.
See system logs and 'systemctl status syncthing@.service' for details.
root@macbook:/home/julian/Desktop# systemctl start syncthing@.service
Failed to start syncthing@.service: Unit name syncthing@.service is missing the instance name.
See system logs and 'systemctl status syncthing@.service' for details.

Notice the service unit file, syncthing@.service, in a few other tutorials I would see something like syncthing@[instancename].service, which I am not seeing on my box.

What is causing it to not set the instance name? and more importantly what is the instance name? Can I set it from the command line and get systemd updated?

Thanx

2

Oh I know it is not running because http://localhost:8384 is not there.

3

I am not a systemd expert but I think it’s usually syncthing@username to run it as a user service. Otherwise, talk to the people who packaged it.

4

The instance name is a single argument that can be passed to systemd units. In this case, it’s the user to run as. You might be looking for systemctl enable syncthing@julian and systemctl start syncthing@julian.

Added: There’s also the possibility of running it in the user manager, which is active when you’re logged in. That would mean using systemctl --user enable syncthing and systemctl --user start syncthing. (The enable in both cases is so that it gets automatically started at boot or login - but it doesn’t start it now, oddly enough.)

1 Like
5

That worked, thank you

6

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