Unbound won't start on system boot

[Jeffrey Walton]

On Thu, Jun 12, 2025 at 5:06 PM Robert Moskowitz <rgm at htt-consult.com> 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

Based on this:

> 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

It looks like the problem is with your comment style.

It looks like systemd recognizes comments at the start of a line, and
not at arbitrary positions. See
<https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/latest/systemd.syntax.html>.

Jeff