How to arrange a non admin command as a systemd service?

Question

For example, I want to run minikube start.

First I created the following minikube.service file:

[Unit]
Description=Runs minikube on startup
After=vboxautostart-service.service vboxballoonctrl-service.service vboxdrv.service vboxweb-service.service

[Service]
Type=forking
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/minikube start

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Then I enabled it and on the next reboot the systemd framework attempted to run it. However, it failed because apparently the minikube start command is not supposed to run as root:

The "virtualbox" driver should not be used with root privileges.

How can I run it under a non admin user?

This should be a `oneshot`, not a `forking` type, with `RemainAfterExit=yes`, and should have an `ExecStop=` defined to stop minikube. — Michael Hampton, Sep 25 '20 at 17:31
This is fantastic input. Could you answer here - https://serverfault.com/questions/1035376/how-to-run-minikube-start-as-a-linux-service-on-startup so I could credit you? — mark, Sep 25 '20 at 18:08

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 25 '20 at 16:59

0

You can define which user have to be used bu the service. For example:

[Unit]
...

[Service]
Type=forking
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/minikube start
User=user1
Group=group1

...

answered Sep 25 '20 at 16:59

kofemann

4,308
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Oh, I will try it now. – mark Sep 25 '20 at 17:02
That worked! The command line still fails, but that would be a different question, because it fails for other reasons. – mark Sep 25 '20 at 17:25

How to arrange a non admin command as a systemd service?

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