Hi again, I'm starting to get to the bottom of it. It looks like the file in /etc/systemd/system is being ignored. I noticed this when I did a: systemctl show -p "After" lightdm.service and saw that it didn't show sshd.service as a depencency. After editing the original copy of lightdm.service in /usr/lib/systemd/system and adding sshd.service there, things work as expected. Now the question is why does /etc/systemd/system/lightdm.service get ignored? Ahh! I think I see the answer to that, too. It looks like this directory contains a symbolic link called dislay-manager.service which points to the original lightdm.service. The thing that's being started at boot time is "display-manager.service"! Yep, that does seem to be the case: I put the original lightdm.service back to its pristine state, made /etc/systemd/system/display-manager.service a symlink to my modified lightdm.service file in /etc/systemd/system and rebooted, and things work as expected. Now my only worry is that this symlink will get pointed back at the original file the next time an updated lightdm is installed.... Bryan