[solved] errors in systemctl output

Question

$ sudo systemctl --all --no-pager | grep error
auditd.service error inactive dead auditd.service
syslog.target error inactive dead syslog.target
$ pkgfile auditd.service
community/audit
$ pkgfile syslog.target
$
$ cat /usr/lib/systemd/system/systemd-update-utmp.service
#  This file is part of systemd.
#  systemd is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
#  under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by
#  the Free Software Foundation; either version 2.1 of the License, or
#  (at your option) any later version.
[Unit]
Description=Update UTMP about System Reboot/Shutdown
Documentation=man:systemd-update-utmp.service(8) man:utmp(5)
DefaultDependencies=no
RequiresMountsFor=/var/log/wtmp
Conflicts=shutdown.target
After=systemd-readahead-collect.service systemd-readahead-replay.service systemd-remount-fs.service systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service auditd.service
Before=sysinit.target shutdown.target
[Service]
Type=oneshot
RemainAfterExit=yes
ExecStart=/usr/lib/systemd/systemd-update-utmp reboot
ExecStop=/usr/lib/systemd/systemd-update-utmp shutdown
There are some services that have
After=syslog.target
dbus.service, nscd.service, lm_sensors.service, svnserve.service.
Should I do anything about these errors? syslog.target doesn't seem to exist at all ...
Last edited by karol (2013-07-29 18:24:36)

Answer 1

I get
$ systemctl --all --no-pager | grep -i error
auditd.service error inactive dead auditd.service
plymouth-quit-wait.service error inactive dead plymouth-quit-wait.service
plymouth-start.service error inactive dead plymouth-start.service
syslog.target error inactive dead syslog.target
If you boot to a display manager, I think you don't get the error for that one because enabling the relevant service sets up a symbolic link. For example:
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 31 Aws 26 2012 /etc/systemd/system/display-manager.service -> /etc/systemd/system/kdm.service
I remember reading complaints that systemd hard-coded dependencies on distro-specific stuff and that it shouldn't. (This was about the plymouth failures.) I tend to agree it is badly behaved in this respect. (As I've said before, I find the logging the biggest downside with systemd. It is the only thing which really bothers me and this, like journal, is part of that.) However, I believe it is harmless.
Does anybody know what audit is good for or what the syslog.target is important for? I actually use syslog-ng and I still get this error.
I take it that "masking" just involves the standard symlinking to /dev/null? I should probably do that for plymouth - the lack of a splash screen should not be highlighted as a boot error! I'd like to know more about the others, though...