-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Further to my earlier post. I must confess to occasionally getting to be a bit stubborn, and in this case didn't want to be beaten by Poettering. I re-installed your script, modifying some fields in what I hope was the appropriate manner: # ls -l /etc/systemd/user total 4 -rwxr-x---. 1 root root 246 Apr 3 21:21 timidity.service # cat /etc/systemd/user/timidity.service [Unit] Description=timidity daemon [Service] PIDFile=/var/run/timidity.pid User=jmr Group=users WorkingDirectory=/home/jmr ExecStart=/usr/bin/timidity -iAD ExecReload=/bin/kill -s HUP $MAINPID ExecStop=/bin/kill -s TERM $MAINPID PrivateTmp=true jmr:users is my account, it will do for the moment; at least I know /home/jmr is usable! I changed the ExecStart to use /usr/bin/timidity, that is the output from command -v timidity. # systemctl daemon-reload # echo $? 0 # systemctl start timidity Failed to issue method call: Unit timidity.service failed to load: No such file or directory. # setenforce 0 # getenforce Permissive # systemctl start timidity Failed to issue method call: Unit timidity.service failed to load: No such file or directory. # systemctl daemon-reload # systemctl start timidity Failed to issue method call: Unit timidity.service failed to load: No such file or directory. I then rebooted the system: # systemctl status timidity timidity.service Loaded: not-found (Reason: No such file or directory) Active: inactive (dead) # systemctl daemon-reload # echo $? 0 # systemctl start timidity Failed to issue method call: Unit timidity.service failed to load: No such file or directory. I checked all logs which had been modified since the reboot and there was no reference to timidity in any of them, which does seem odd if the startup is failing. Any pointers as to where to go next? I did briefly think of running systemctl with sh -vx, but but as I expected it is an image! Back to square 1. Fortunately this is my home machine, so I am free to pull it to bits to try and find out what is happening. My next thought is to add dummy services in /etc/systemd/user, possibly pulling one out of the system directory to prove it is working. Poettering has certainly set me an interesting puzzle. Thanks. Martin -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.22 (GNU/Linux) iQIcBAEBAgAGBQJVHwLeAAoJEAF3yXsqtyBluEQQALrnK98R7puNN0uSTOrRILGw HX9bnBWGV9UpgL5dOTj+o+GGt3PZIcBws0DsOqnSDt33ZJ/Xq9mMeQaSlDmgeWb6 TnnZYirEJf1bDuozrKi9kaN4s4hmZU3oZhShdb2Ovem4iKCR7b36yDK0/Zq6yusJ eq1UikWGNkMw+RuUYPLSY4txoPjab9W94fET5X6rzGy5FALg7dgP02YXZGqUxGYb X5K8ehpqWr0Za3US9SZTVAT0HtDFqhrv6lBbzAD4KKP2z9G2P1PicOHW892JmGWC kzCJhc04GHrFba4aOxqnR0Qqd/TwtXve0rVYLc6c0entqdsMfaOQS7YnBUXtR77a rgl63GV90NSVs0Jejub59n+KdEqWxXBpahmOTEJQ8/G4e0omNgxevqnRk8X2VZkV rlUePRtxWVWYqKqeZfIOzu9fl9CSlczfzGvgkSRq6u4kCtf1a3zPhVeQwRc+Tsyo gOcwoM7h8txmgLHDchJXFspKvgLLq9GyQp4P3vRh7pON2gxBVdzyHyKr8KoVU8SD 9rsRbyypR1iCMTIL/yaax4/8LmwkC0lRfh/+v+Fom9iPcKNCZVRL2azO7LqUW2Fr /l7RrZfXEFZta93fe9tVld4IS3HrE6ZZoYraFv11XqUy90wqEHKd21ZocAlPbpC5 i51UkKJ7eSYciZMMh80H =jJAn -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----