cannot start fwupd-refresh service

Question

I have this service in a failed status on multiple ubuntu 20 and 22 servers, which is annoying because it's triggering warnings on my monitoring system.

I can't start the service, this is journalctl -xe when I try to start it:

Jun 26 15:03:39 w03 systemd[1]: Starting Refresh fwupd metadata and update motd...
-- Subject: A start job for unit fwupd-refresh.service has begun execution
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: http://www.ubuntu.com/support
--
-- A start job for unit fwupd-refresh.service has begun execution.
--
-- The job identifier is 11102154.
Jun 26 15:03:39 w03 systemd[1]: fwupd-refresh.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
-- Subject: Unit process exited
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: http://www.ubuntu.com/support
--
-- An ExecStart= process belonging to unit fwupd-refresh.service has exited.
--
-- The process' exit code is 'exited' and its exit status is 1.
Jun 26 15:03:39 w03 systemd[1]: fwupd-refresh.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
-- Subject: Unit failed
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: http://www.ubuntu.com/support
--
-- The unit fwupd-refresh.service has entered the 'failed' state with result 'exit-code'.
Jun 26 15:03:39 w03 systemd[1]: Failed to start Refresh fwupd metadata and update motd.
-- Subject: A start job for unit fwupd-refresh.service has failed
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: http://www.ubuntu.com/support
--
-- A start job for unit fwupd-refresh.service has finished with a failure.

This is service fwupd-refresh status:

● fwupd-refresh.service - Refresh fwupd metadata and update motd
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/fwupd-refresh.service; static; vendor preset: disabled)
     Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Sun 2022-06-26 15:03:39 UTC; 1min 47s ago
TriggeredBy: ● fwupd-refresh.timer
       Docs: man:fwupdmgr(1)
    Process: 287257 ExecStart=/usr/bin/fwupdmgr refresh (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
   Main PID: 287257 (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)

Jun 26 15:03:39 w03 systemd[1]: Starting Refresh fwupd metadata and update motd...
Jun 26 15:03:39 w03 systemd[1]: fwupd-refresh.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Jun 26 15:03:39 w03 systemd[1]: fwupd-refresh.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Jun 26 15:03:39 w03 systemd[1]: Failed to start Refresh fwupd metadata and update motd.

I don't know where to find more logs to understand the issue, any idea?

Answer 1

Edit the file under

/lib/systemd/system/fwupd-refresh.service

Add User=root, and this resolved the service failing.

Then:

systemctl daemon-reload; service fwupd-refresh restart; service fwupd-refresh status

This is an example of the service file.

[Unit]
Description=Refresh fwupd metadata and update motd
Documentation=man:fwupdmgr(1)
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=oneshot
User=root
CacheDirectory=fwupdmgr
StandardError=null
DynamicUser=yes
RestrictAddressFamilies=AF_NETLINK AF_UNIX AF_INET AF_INET6
SystemCallFilter=~@mount
ProtectKernelModules=yes
ProtectControlGroups=yes
RestrictRealtime=yes
SuccessExitStatus=2
ExecStart=/usr/bin/fwupdmgr refresh