Unbound won't start on system boot

Thu Jun 12 23:47:16 UTC 2025

one thing that bothers me.  Profoundly.

I would think this is a generic unbound install on Ubuntu 24. Nothing 
noteworthy.

Yes, I had problems due to my lack of Ubuntu familiarity and rushing a 
few things (like a different firewall interface).

But the service not starting on system start?  What am I missing here?

Ignore current problems with customizing the service start.  That is 
because out-of-the-box, it was NOT starting on boot up.

I am perplexed.  Maybe the hardware is causing some services to start in 
a "non typical  way".  I don't buy that.

Just some evening musings.

On 6/12/25 5:06 PM, Robert Moskowitz via ubuntu-users wrote:
>
>
> On 6/12/25 4:40 PM, Jeffrey Walton wrote:
>> On Thu, Jun 12, 2025 at 4:01 PM Robert Moskowitz 
>> <rgm at htt-consult.com> wrote:
>>> Still not starting on boot despite working with service settings.
>>>
>>> defaults:
>>>
>>> cat /usr/lib/systemd/system/unbound.service
>>> [Unit]
>>> Description=Unbound DNS server
>>> Documentation=man:unbound(8)
>>> After=network.target
>>> Before=nss-lookup.target
>>> Wants=nss-lookup.target
>>>
>>> [Service]
>>> Type=notify
>>> Restart=on-failure
>>> EnvironmentFile=-/etc/default/unbound
>>> ExecStartPre=-/usr/libexec/unbound-helper chroot_setup
>>> ExecStartPre=-/usr/libexec/unbound-helper root_trust_anchor_update
>>> ExecStart=/usr/sbin/unbound -d -p $DAEMON_OPTS
>>> ExecStopPost=-/usr/libexec/unbound-helper chroot_teardown
>>> ExecReload=+/bin/kill -HUP $MAINPID
>>>
>>> [Install]
>>> WantedBy=multi-user.target
>>>
>>> ================
>>>
>>> so it is already setup for After= but this is not enough.  So via
>>>
>>> systemctl edit unbound.service
>>>
>>> cat /etc/systemd/system/unbound.service.d/override.conf
>>> [Unit]
>>> StartLimitIntervalSec=30  # Allow restarts within a 30-second interval
>>> StartLimitBurst=3         # Allow a maximum of 3 restarts within the
>>> interval
>>>
>>> [Service]
>>> RestartSec=10             # Wait 10 seconds before restarting
>>>
>>> ==========================
>>>
>>> Yet, it fails on boot and this is what status reports:
>>>
>>> × unbound.service - Unbound DNS server
>>>        Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/unbound.service; 
>>> enabled;
>>> preset: enabled)
>>>       Drop-In: /etc/systemd/system/unbound.service.d
>>>                └─override.conf
>>>        Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Thu 2025-06-12 15:46:45
>>> EDT; 42s ago
>>>          Docs: man:unbound(8)
>>>       Process: 1055 ExecStartPre=/usr/libexec/unbound-helper 
>>> chroot_setup
>>> (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
>>>       Process: 1057 ExecStartPre=/usr/libexec/unbound-helper
>>> root_trust_anchor_update (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
>>>       Process: 1060 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/unbound -d -p $DAEMON_OPTS
>>> (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
>>>       Process: 1063 ExecStopPost=/usr/libexec/unbound-helper
>>> chroot_teardown (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
>>>      Main PID: 1060 (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
>>>           CPU: 44ms
>>>
>>> Jun 12 15:46:45 onlo systemd[1]: unbound.service: Scheduled restart 
>>> job,
>>> restart counter is at 5.
>>> Jun 12 15:46:45 onlo systemd[1]: unbound.service: Start request 
>>> repeated
>>> too quickly.
>>> Jun 12 15:46:45 onlo systemd[1]: unbound.service: Failed with result
>>> 'exit-code'.
>>> Jun 12 15:46:45 onlo systemd[1]: Failed to start unbound.service -
>>> Unbound DNS server.
>>> Jun 12 15:46:45 onlo systemd[1]: unbound.service: Start request 
>>> repeated
>>> too quickly.
>>> Jun 12 15:46:45 onlo systemd[1]: unbound.service: Failed with result
>>> 'exit-code'.
>>> Jun 12 15:46:45 onlo systemd[1]: Failed to start unbound.service -
>>> Unbound DNS server.
>>>
>>> =============================
>>>
>>> restart works just fine from my login.
>>>
>>> So why "restart counter is at 5."  And at first I tried
>>> StartLimitBurst=2.  I changed it to 3.  Note that it is only trying 
>>> 2 times.
>>>
>>> What am I missing here?
>> Did you reboot the machine or issue `systemctl daemon-reload` after 
>> the changes?
>
> Just rebooted.  No daemon-reload.
>
>> Finally, what does `journalctl -u unbound.service` have to say?
>
> I had to work a little bit to find the messages from the reboot. And I 
> don't think these are them, rather from when I did the restart?  Based 
> on uptime and current time, I calculate the system was booted closer 
> to 15:00 and prior to this messages are from 14:45 and are queries.
>
> So it looks like there are problems with the content of my override.conf?
>
> Jun 12 15:16:12 onlo systemd[1]: 
> /etc/systemd/system/unbound.service.d/override.conf:3: Failed to parse 
> sec value, ignoring: 30  # Allow restarts within a 30-second interval
> Jun 12 15:16:12 onlo systemd[1]: 
> /etc/systemd/system/unbound.service.d/override.conf:4: Failed to parse 
> unsigned value, ignoring: 2         # Allow a maximum of 2 restarts 
> within the interval
> Jun 12 15:16:12 onlo systemd[1]: 
> /etc/systemd/system/unbound.service.d/override.conf:8: Failed to parse 
> service restart specifier, ignoring: on-failure        # Restart on 
> failure
> Jun 12 15:16:12 onlo systemd[1]: 
> /etc/systemd/system/unbound.service.d/override.conf:9: Failed to parse 
> sec value, ignoring: 10             # Wait 10 seconds before restarting
> Jun 12 15:16:12 onlo systemd[1]: unbound.service: Service has more 
> than one ExecStart= setting, which is only allowed for Type=oneshot 
> services. Refusing.
> Jun 12 15:16:51 onlo unbound[1823]: [1823:0] info: service stopped 
> (unbound 1.19.2).
> Jun 12 15:16:51 onlo systemd[1]: Stopping unbound.service - unbound...
> Jun 12 15:16:51 onlo unbound[1823]: [1823:0] info: server stats for 
> thread 0: 16 queries, 0 answers from cache, 16 recursions, 0 prefetch, 
> 0 rejected by ip ratelimiting
> Jun 12 15:16:51 onlo unbound[1823]: [1823:0] info: server stats for 
> thread 0: requestlist max 3 avg 0.5625 exceeded 0 jostled 0
> Jun 12 15:16:51 onlo unbound[1823]: [1823:0] info: mesh has 0 
> recursion states (0 with reply, 0 detached), 0 waiting replies, 16 
> recursion replies sent, 0 replies dropped, 0 states jostled out
> Jun 12 15:16:51 onlo unbound[1823]: [1823:0] info: average recursion 
> processing time 0.333283 sec
> Jun 12 15:16:51 onlo unbound[1823]: [1823:0] info: histogram of 
> recursion processing times
> Jun 12 15:16:51 onlo unbound[1823]: [1823:0] info: [25%]=0.131072 
> median[50%]=0.23593 [75%]=0.524288
> Jun 12 15:16:51 onlo unbound[1823]: [1823:0] info: lower(secs) 
> upper(secs) recursions
> Jun 12 15:16:51 onlo unbound[1823]: [1823:0] info:    0.001024 0.002048 1
> Jun 12 15:16:51 onlo unbound[1823]: [1823:0] info:    0.008192 0.016384 2
> Jun 12 15:16:51 onlo unbound[1823]: [1823:0] info:    0.065536 0.131072 1
> Jun 12 15:16:51 onlo unbound[1823]: [1823:0] info:    0.131072 0.262144 5
> Jun 12 15:16:51 onlo unbound[1823]: [1823:0] info:    0.262144 0.524288 3
> Jun 12 15:16:51 onlo unbound[1823]: [1823:0] info:    0.524288 1.000000 4
>
>