[SOLVED]colord & mem usage, disable it via systemd

hungerfish · 2013-11-16 14:47:01

So, forgive my ignorance if this is a stupid question, but do I 'need' colord running?
It got installed alongside gtk3 simple-scan and cups, but as I only rarely use gtk3 apps (including simple-scan) or cups, I tried to disable it via systemd, thinking that it being the all 'powerful-tool' I would be able to do so.

systemctl stop colord

works as expected. An inspection of the process-list shows that colord is no longer running.

systemctl disable colord

however just returns (return 0; btw.), no output, not the usual 'rm some-symlink'. And sure enough, it get started right back up on reboot.

So, to sum up
a) do I need it (at boot), and why?
b) and more importantly, how do I get rid of it (even if I do need it - my system, my rules) using systemd?

Thanks for your input!

P.S. The reason why I stumbled across this issue is colord's apparent mem. consumption, granted with 16GB of memory I don't care, but its become a matter of principle since!

EDIT:
For Reference(not directly related):
Systemd footprint

Last edited by hungerfish (2013-11-19 00:14:13)

karol · 2013-11-16 15:10:07

What's the output of

systemctl status colord

ooo · 2013-11-16 15:18:45

a) If you don't care about precise color output on you screen or when printing, you don't really need it. You still need to assign correct color profiles for your monitor/printer for it to have any effect though.

hungerfish · 2013-11-16 15:31:45

when its running:

colord.service - Manage, Install and Generate Color Profiles
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/colord.service; static)
   Active: active (running) since Sat 2013-11-16 15:55:59 CET; 28min ago
 Main PID: 792 (colord)
   CGroup: /system.slice/colord.service
           └─792 /usr/lib/colord/colord

after 'stopping' it:

colord.service - Manage, Install and Generate Color Profiles
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/colord.service; static)
   Active: inactive (dead)

Well I guess I would care, but I can't be bothered about setting up color profiles
Anyway, this is more about how I can use systemd correctly to get rid of it (or enable it when I need/want it)

Interestingly I tried running 'enable' on colord, and I got:

The unit files have no [Install] section. They are not meant to be enabled
using systemctl.
Possible reasons for having this kind of units are:
1) A unit may be statically enabled by being symlinked from another unit's
   .wants/ or .requires/ directory.
2) A unit's purpose may be to act as a helper for some other unit which has
   a requirement dependency on it.
3) A unit may be started when needed via activation (socket, path, timer,
   D-Bus, udev, scripted systemctl call, ...).

So I guess we now have the problem before us, just how do I now get what I want?

Last edited by hungerfish (2013-11-16 15:33:05)

Šaran · 2013-11-16 15:53:02

colord-fake from AUR makes cups think colord is active and has worked for me just fine since systemd switch.

ooo · 2013-11-16 16:37:34

hungerfish wrote:

Well I guess I would care, but I can't be bothered about setting up color profiles

you can also use xcalib for your monitor if you're interested. You can usually find the icc profile for your monitor from manufacturers website, or by googling pretty easily

hungerfish · 2013-11-18 20:03:43

So, there's really no way of disabling this??? I can't imagine that...I guess I could use that package from AUR, but thats kinda like cheating!
Thanks for the link for xcalib, maybe I'll use it, BUT I still want to at least have the possibility of disabling colord.

EDIT:
So, I've had a look at the colord.service.

systemctl list-dependencies colord
colord.service
├─dbus.socket
├─system.slice
--snip--
    └─systemd-tmpfiles-clean.timer

Thinking I could find out what actually needs the service running, I tried:

systemctl --reverse list-dependencies colord
colord.service

Which as you can see returned just itself. Now, I'm no expert, and as such I could just be using the commands the wrong way, but as I see it from that output, I should be able to disable it!? So why doesn't 'disable' work??

EDIT2:
So, it turns out, if one disables cupsd via systemctl colord is no longer started during boot. I tried this on a whim, and I don't understand why the above 'reverse' command doesn't list cups, but there you have it!

Last edited by hungerfish (2013-11-18 23:52:53)

Arch Linux

#1 2013-11-16 14:47:01

[SOLVED]colord & mem usage, disable it via systemd

#2 2013-11-16 15:10:07

Re: [SOLVED]colord & mem usage, disable it via systemd

#3 2013-11-16 15:18:45

Re: [SOLVED]colord & mem usage, disable it via systemd

#4 2013-11-16 15:31:45

Re: [SOLVED]colord & mem usage, disable it via systemd

#5 2013-11-16 15:53:02

Re: [SOLVED]colord & mem usage, disable it via systemd

#6 2013-11-16 16:37:34

Re: [SOLVED]colord & mem usage, disable it via systemd

#7 2013-11-18 20:03:43

Re: [SOLVED]colord & mem usage, disable it via systemd

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