If you are running a Linux distro that uses Systemd, then you may find that your command in /etc/rc.local file would not run on system boot. This guide explains how to enable /etc/rc.local script to run on system startup.
Enable /etc/rc.local on Systemd
If you type the following command in terminal:
sudo systemctl status rc-local
You may get this output:
● rc-local.service - /etc/rc.local Compatibility Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/rc-local.service; static; vendor preset: enabled) Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Thu 2015-11-26 23:54:58 CST; 59s ago Process: 1001 ExecStart=/etc/rc.local start (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE) Nov 26 23:54:57 vivid rc.local[1001]: File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 920, in require Nov 26 23:54:57 vivid rc.local[1001]: needed = self.resolve(parse_requirements(requirements)) Nov 26 23:54:57 vivid rc.local[1001]: File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 807, in resolve Nov 26 23:54:57 vivid rc.local[1001]: raise DistributionNotFound(req) Nov 26 23:54:58 vivid sudo[1008]: pam_unix(sudo:session): session closed for user root Nov 26 23:54:58 vivid systemd[1]: rc-local.service: control process exited, code=exited status=1 Nov 26 23:54:58 vivid systemd[1]: Failed to start /etc/rc.local Compatibility. Nov 26 23:54:58 vivid systemd[1]: Unit rc-local.service entered failed state. Nov 26 23:54:58 vivid systemd[1]: rc-local.service failed.
And if you try to enable /etc/rc.local to run on system boot with the command:
sudo systemctl enable rc-local
You may get:
The unit files have no [Install] section. They are not meant to be enabled using systemctl. Possible reasons for having this kind of units are: 1) A unit may be statically enabled by being symlinked from another unit's .wants/ or .requires/ directory. 2) A unit's purpose may be to act as a helper for some other unit which has a requirement dependency on it. 3) A unit may be started when needed via activation (socket, path, timer, D-Bus, udev, scripted systemctl call, ...).
The solution
As you can see from above, The unit file have no [Install] section. As such Systemd can not enable it. First we need to create a file:
sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/rc-local.service
Then add the following content to it.
[Unit] Description=/etc/rc.local Compatibility ConditionPathExists=/etc/rc.local [Service] Type=forking ExecStart=/etc/rc.local start TimeoutSec=0 StandardOutput=tty RemainAfterExit=yes SysVStartPriority=99 [Install] WantedBy=multi-user.target
Save and close the file. To save a file in Nano text editor, press Ctrl+O, then press Enter to confirm. To exit the file, Press Ctrl+X. Next, run the following command to make sure /etc/rc.local file is executable.
sudo chmod +x /etc/rc.local
Note: Starting with 16.10, Ubuntu doesn’t ship with /etc/rc.local file anymore. You can create the file by executing this command.
printf '%s ' '#!/bin/bash' 'exit 0' | sudo tee -a /etc/rc.local
Then add execute permission to /etc/rc.local file.
sudo chmod +x /etc/rc.local
After that, enable the service on system boot:
sudo systemctl enable rc-local
Output:
Created symlink from /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/rc-local.service to /etc/systemd/system/rc-local.service.
Now start the service and check its status:
sudo systemctl start rc-local.service sudo systemctl status rc-local.service
Output:
● rc-local.service - /etc/rc.local Compatibility Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/rc-local.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled) Active: active (running) since Fri 2015-11-27 00:32:56 CST; 14min ago Process: 879 ExecStart=/etc/rc.local start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS) Main PID: 880 (watch) CGroup: /system.slice/rc-local.service