Task: Start Chromium on startup on openSUSE machine

Problem: I think the problem is that I want to start a GUI program

So far:

Mon Aug 14; 06:45:00; marton;/etc/systemd ; $ 
Mon Aug 14; 06:45:00; marton;/etc/systemd ; $ ls -l
total 24
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 529 Mar 15 07:20 bootchart.conf
-rw-rw-r-- 1 root root 138 Aug 14 06:34 chorm_start.service
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 768 Mar 15 07:20 journald.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 709 Mar 15 07:20 logind.conf
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 772 Aug 14 05:16 system
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1196 Mar 15 07:20 system.conf
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 0 Mar 15 07:20 user
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 992 Mar 15 07:20 user.conf
Mon Aug 14; 06:45:00; marton;/etc/systemd ; $ sudo chmod 664 chorm_start.service 
root's password:
Mon Aug 14; 06:45:19; marton;/etc/systemd ; $ ls -l
total 24
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 529 Mar 15 07:20 bootchart.conf
-rw-rw-r-- 1 root root 138 Aug 14 06:34 chorm_start.service
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 768 Mar 15 07:20 journald.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 709 Mar 15 07:20 logind.conf
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 772 Aug 14 05:16 system
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1196 Mar 15 07:20 system.conf
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 0 Mar 15 07:20 user
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 992 Mar 15 07:20 user.conf
Mon Aug 14; 06:45:20; marton;/etc/systemd ; $ cat chorm_start.service 
[Unit] 
Description="Starting chromium on startup" 

[Service] 
ExecStart=/usr/lib64/chromium/chromium 

[Install] 
WantedBy=multi-user.target 
Mon Aug 14; 06:45:38; marton;/etc/systemd ; $ sudo systemctl status chorm_start
chorm_start.service - "Starting chromium on startup" 
 Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/chorm_start.service; enabled) 
 Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Mon 2017-08-14 06:38:44 EEST; 7min ago 
 Process: 853 ExecStart=/usr/lib64/chromium/chromium (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
 Main PID: 853 (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)

Aug 14 06:38:47 date chromium[853]: Unable to init server: Could not connect: Connection refused
Aug 14 06:38:47 date chromium[853]: [853:853:0814/063844.727638:ERROR:browser_main_loop.cc(279)] Gtk: cannot open display:
Mon Aug 14; 06:46:35; marton;/etc/systemd ; $ 

Question: What am I doing wrong and how to solve the problem

And now, the systemd answer.

Since you did ask how to do it with systemd. ☺

This is how the systemd people have been telling people to do this.

You are putting the service unit file in entirely the wrong directory. It should not go in /etc/systemd. It should not even go in /etc/systemd/system. It should go in ~marton/.config/systemd/user.

This is because a graphical program that you want to run under the aegis of your own account is a per-user service not a system service. (You are currently invoking a WWW browser as the superuser. That is a very bad idea. Stop that now!) You could configure it for all users in the /etc/systemd/user directory, but it is probable that not all users on your machine need to start Chromium as a service. So configure it just for your user account, specifically.

As it is a per-user service, you should manipulate it with the --user option to systemctl, sans sudo. For example:

systemctl --user status chrome.service

That goes for enabling and disabling it, too.

As a per-user service unit, it should be WantedBy=default.target, because there is no multi-user.target for per-user services. (Although I suspect it should actually be WantedBy=your-desktop-session.target, which will be something like gnome-session.target depending from what desktop your are using. What the systemd people have been saying is not wondrously clear on this point.)

And one part of the systemd people's bodge to make per-user services look like per-login-session services is the whole graphical-session mechanism, which your service unit must incorporate with the setting:

[Unit]
PartOf=graphical-session.target

What else you have to do depends from how far OpenSuSE has got with the whole graphical-session bodge, which systemd people started pushing in 2016. Ubuntu and Debian provide a whole mess of behind the scenes shell scripting in GUI login session startup and shutdown that bodges both the starting/stopping of graphical-session.target and injecting the DISPLAY environment variable. If your OpenSuSE does not yet have this, you might have to fill in that part.

Further reading

• Lennart Poettering et al. (2016). systemd.special. systemd manual pages. Freedesktop.org.


• Martin Pitt (2016-07-25). units: add graphical-session.target user unit. systemd bug #3678.


• Martin Pitt (2016-09-29). graphical-session.target. systemd.conf. Youtube.


• Ian Lane (2017-07-30). systemd in GNOME user sessions. GUADEC 2017. Youtube.

I tried this myself, and like you found that systemd is the wrong tool for the job when it comes to starting graphical desktop apps. An easy approach is to use the "autostart apps" feature of your preferred desktop environment.

The difference is that systemd does not have easy access to the DISPLAY environment variable, while the "auto start apps" approach will.

This works for me. The key is to add the User in the Service, along with initiating the DISPLAY in the Environment .

[Unit]
Description=launch chromium

[Service]
User=<user>
Environment=DISPLAY=:0
ExecStart=/usr/bin/chromium-browser

[Install]
WantedBy=user@.service