Arch Linux

JoeHartley

Member

Registered: 2011-10-01

Posts: 26

Systemd user service doesn't start at login

I recently updated my system, and afterwards pipewire did not start for me.  After hours of troubleshooting, I find that the issue is that the systemd user service is not running after a system boot.

$ systemctl status user@101.service
○ user@101.service - User Manager for UID 101
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/user@.service; static)
    Drop-In: /usr/lib/systemd/system/user@.service.d
             └─10-login-barrier.conf
     Active: inactive (dead)
       Docs: man:user@.service(5)

Once I restart it, pipewire runs again and I have sound:

[jh@xtc ~]$ sudo systemctl restart user@101.service

[jh@xtc ~]$ systemctl status user@101.service
● user@101.service - User Manager for UID 101
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/user@.service; static)
    Drop-In: /usr/lib/systemd/system/user@.service.d
             └─10-login-barrier.conf
     Active: active (running) since Sun 2025-09-21 12:49:53 EDT; 1s ago
 Invocation: 581e335f4ad84171837a1ae262215ae0
       Docs: man:user@.service(5)
   Main PID: 2471 (systemd)
     Status: "Ready."
      Tasks: 14
     Memory: 40.2M (peak: 40.7M)
        CPU: 1.181s
     CGroup: /user.slice/user-101.slice/user@101.service
             ├─init.scope
             │ ├─2471 /usr/lib/systemd/systemd --user
             │ └─2474 "(sd-pam)"
             └─session.slice
               ├─dbus-broker.service
               │ ├─2483 /usr/bin/dbus-broker-launch --scope user
               │ └─2484 dbus-broker --log 11 --controller 10 --machine-id fd5de>
               ├─pipewire.service
               │ └─2485 /usr/bin/pipewire
               └─wireplumber.service

I can work around this by restarting the service once I boot, or by putting the restart in ~/.bash_profile, but I'd really like to figure out why this isn't starting as it used to.  Thanks!

loqs

Member

Registered: 2014-03-06

Posts: 18,654

Re: Systemd user service doesn't start at login

You could try using the ALA to determine which package update triggered the issue.  Why are you logging in as a system user or do you have a normal user with the UID 101?  Have you checked the journal for possible clues?

Last edited by loqs (2025-09-21 17:59:09)

JoeHartley

Member

Registered: 2011-10-01

Posts: 26

Re: Systemd user service doesn't start at login

You could try using the ALA to determine which package update triggered the issue.  Why are you logging in as a system user or do you have a normal user with the UID 101?  Have you checked the journal for possible clues?

I'll try and determine the package but I don't feel the need to downgrade as there's a workaround.

As for UID 101, that's a holdover from earlier days when 100 and below was reserved for system accounts.  This Arch installation is from 10 years ago (Mar 6 2015 according to pacman.log!) and my account was recreated from an even older Fedora machine where I had the 101 UID.

seth

Member

From: Don't DM me only for attention

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 70,093

Re: Systemd user service doesn't start at login

Does this affect UIDs w/ non-system values (create a test user)
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 3#p2262583

I don't feel the need to downgrade as there's a workaround

The point is to figure what has triggered this, see https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=308380

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