Systemd

Introduction

The main aim of systemd (a "system and service manager") is to unify service configuration and behavior across Linux distributions. It bootstraps the user space and manages user processes. It also provides replacements for various daemons and utilities, including device management, login management, network connection management, and event logging.

Since 2015, the majority of Linux distributions have adopted systemd, having replaced other init systems such as SysV init.

Making Systemd start up VDR

Before systemd, you might have edited /etc/gettydefs to prevent a virtual console from being associated with a normal login prompt, and then have init invoke a shell script that would invoke VDR, often named runvdr. With systemd, you would execute sudo systemctl disable getty@tty1 and write a systemd unit configuration file, say, /etc/systemd/system/vdr.service, with contents like the following:

[Unit]
Description=Video Disk Recorder
#After=systemd-user-sessions.service plymouth-quit-wait.service rc-local.service
Conflicts=getty@tty1.service
#BindsTo=dev-disk-by\x2dlabel-VDR.device
#After=video.mount
Conflicts=shutdown.target
ConditionPathExists=/video/video

[Service]
User=pi
#ExecStartPre=+/etc/systemd/system/vdr-keep-alive.sh start
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/vdr --no-kbd --lirc=/dev/lirc0 -Prpihddevice -v /video/video -s /var/lib/vdr/vdr-shutdown.sh
#ExecStart=systemd-inhibit --what=idle:sleep:shutdown:handle-power-key:handle-suspend-key:handle-lid-switch --who=VDR --mode=block /usr/local/bin/vdr --no-kbd --lirc=/dev/lirc0 -Prpihddevice -v /video/video -s /var/lib/vdr/vdr-shutdown.sh
TimeoutStartSec=infinity
Type=idle
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=1s
TTYVTDisallocate=yes

[Install]
WantedBy=display-manager.service

Adjustments

• User= refers to the user account that will run the VDR service.
• ExecStart= must refer to the full VDR invocation.
• ConditionPathExists= is for the directory that contains the recordings, matching the -v parameter in ExecStart. If the recordings cannot be mounted, the service would not start up.
• After= specifies services that need to be started first. See man 5 systemd.unit for a description of various dependencies.
• The commented-out BindsTo and After=video.mount are for automatically starting up VDR when video storage is plugged in.

The shutdown script (named /var/lib/vdr/vdr-shutdown.sh in the above example) could do at least one of the following:

• Adjust rtcwake (or Nvram_wakeup) to have the system start up automatically on the next scheduled recording.
• Shut down VDR or the entire system.

Installation

sudo systemctl disable getty@tty1
sudo systemctl enable vdr
sudo systemctl start vdr

or just (according to man systemctl):

sudo systemctl enable --now vdr

Note: If you do not disable getty@tty1.service, VDR may fail to start up when the system starts. Disabling or enabling services persists across system restart.

Example: Auto-starting VDR with swappable video storage

On a small system like the Raspberry_Pi, the internal storage is just large enough for the basic installation and system configuration. For recordings, you might want to use a USB-powered HDD or SSD.

You might make a virtue out of necessity and implement swappable video directories. One USB SSD might not be large enough for your entire collection of recordings. So, why not implement swappable storage, with the following user interface?

1. When you plug in the USB cable (or it is attached on system startup), VDR will start up automatically.
2. When you press the power button, VDR will shut down and the USB storage will be powered off, so that it can be safely unplugged.
3. When you plug in the USB cable again, VDR will start up again. This could be a different drive.

Preparations

Create a file system and label it VDR. Create the subdirectory video inside it.

Below, we assume that the storage devices that you want to initialize is /dev/sdd. Substitute the correct name for sdd below, and ensure that you are accessing the right device!

sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdd1
sudo tune2fs -L /dev/sdd1
sudo mount /dev/sdd1 /mnt
mkdir /mnt/video
sudo umount /mnt

On the VDR system, create a mount point for the storage devices that have been prepared as above.

sudo mkdir -m 000 /video

Automatically mounting storage when it is plugged in

You might think of a simple /etc/fstab entry like this:

LABEL=VDR /video ext4 defaults,noatime,nofail 0 1

But, we want the file system to be mounted automatically when it is labeled VDR. To achieve that, we create a file /etc/systemd/system/video.mount (the name must match the mount point /video):

[Unit]
BindsTo=dev-disk-by\x2dlabel-VDR.device
After=dev-disk-by\x2dlabel-VDR.device
Requires=systemd-fsck@dev-disk-by\x2dlabel-VDR.service
After=systemd-fsck@dev-disk-by\x2dlabel-VDR.service

[Mount]
Where=/video
What=/dev/disk/by-label/VDR
Type=ext4
Options=defaults,noatime,nofail

[Install]
WantedBy=dev-disk-by\x2dlabel-VDR.device

The magic .device unit refers to the path /dev/disk/by-label/VDR, which will become available when a device containing a file system labeled VDR is attached. We use that name also in the What= directive.

Now we are ready to enable the unit:

sudo systemctl enable video.mount

To check the status, you may find the following commands useful:

systemctl status
journalctl -u video.mount
journalctl -xe

Automatically starting VDR when the storage is plugged in

We also want VDR to start automatically once the file system has been mounted. To do that, some BindsTo and After directives have to be present in the [Unit] section and a WantedBy directive in the [Install] section of /etc/systemd/system/vdr.service:

[Unit]
Description=Video Disk Recorder
BindsTo=dev-disk-by\x2dlabel-VDR.device
After=video.mount
Conflicts=getty@tty1.service
Conflicts=shutdown.target

[Service]
User=pi
#ExecStartPre=+/etc/systemd/system/vdr-keep-alive.sh start
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/vdr --no-kbd --lirc=/dev/lirc0 -Prpihddevice -v /video/video -s /var/lib/vdr/vdr-shutdown.sh
TimeoutStartSec=infinity
Type=idle
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=1s
TTYVTDisallocate=yes

[Install]
WantedBy=video.mount

If you had the following lines at the end of the file, they can be removed:

[Install]
WantedBy=display-manager.service

To notify systemd of the update:

sudo systemctl reenable vdr

Preventing shutdown and reboot while VDR is running

By default, the power button on a remote control that is managed by a kernel LIRC driver will be mapped to systemd-logind. Unless you have overridden the default HandlePowerKey=poweroff in /etc/systemd/logind.conf, the system would be shut down immediately when you hit a power button on any input device (remote control, keyboard, or power button on the computer case).

Often, VDR is the main application on the system. You would not want the system to be accidentally shut down or rebooted while someone is watching TV, or a recording is in progress. System shutdown would be initiated by a script that would be invoked by VDR itself; see the -s parameter of ExecStart above.

Policy Kit script (work in progress)

Recent versions of polkitd (formerly called Policy Kit daemon) support Javascript based rules. Older versions (up to version 0.105) only support a .pkla format. The new place for custom user rules is the directory /etc/polkit-1/rules.d/. The following has been tested with polkitd version 122.

Create the file /etc/polkit-1/rules.d/50-vdr-prevent-shutdown.rules with the following contents:

polkit.addRule (function (action, subject) {
  if (action.id == "org.freedesktop.login1.reboot" ||
      action.id == "org.freedesktop.login1.power-off" ||
      action.id == "org.freedesktop.login1.suspend" ||
      action.id == "org.freedesktop.login1.hibernate" ||
      action.id == "org.freedesktop.login1.reboot-multiple-sessions" ||
      action.id == "org.freedesktop.login1.power-off-multiple-sessions" ||
      action.id == "org.freedesktop.login1.suspend-multiple-sessions" ||
      action.id == "org.freedesktop.login1.hibernate-multiple-sessions" ||
      action.id == "org.freedesktop.login1.reboot-ignore-inhibit" ||
      action.id == "org.freedesktop.login1.power-off-ignore-inhibit" ||
      action.id == "org.freedesktop.login1.suspend-ignore-inhibit" ||
      action.id == "org.freedesktop.login1.hibernate-ignore-inhibit" ||
      action.id == "org.freedesktop.login1.set-reboot-parameter" ||
      action.id == "org.freedesktop.login1.set-reboot-to-firmware-setup" ||
      action.id == "org.freedesktop.login1.set-reboot-to-boot-loader-menu" ||
      action.id == "org.freedesktop.login1.set-reboot-to-boot-loader-entry") {
    try {
      polkit.spawn(["/usr/bin/test", "!", "-d", "/video/video"]);
      return polkit.Result.YES; 
    }
    catch (error) {
      return polkit.Result.NO; 
    }
  }
  else if (action.id == "org.freedesktop.login1.inhibit-block-idle" ||
           action.id == "org.freedesktop.login1.inhibit-block-shutdown" ||
           action.id == "org.freedesktop.login1.inhibit-block-sleep" ||
           action.id == "org.freedesktop.login1.inhibit-handle-power-key" ||
           action.id == "org.freedesktop.login1.inhibit-handle-reboot-key" ||
           action.id == "org.freedesktop.login1.inhibit-handle-suspend-key")
    return polkit.Result.YES;
});

You may want to replace the polkit.spawn call with something else.

The systemd-logind power button handling by will be unaffected by this, that is, you may want to replace HandlePowerKey=poweroff in /etc/systemd/logind.conf or block it by other means. The else if part enables the Systemd way of blocking the power key:

systemd-inhibit --what=idle:sleep:shutdown:handle-power-key:handle-suspend-key:handle-lid-switch --who=VDR --mode=block vdr --no-kbd …

The above script will allow normal users to execute any power actions unless the directory /video/video exists, which could mean that a detachable video storage is plugged in. For example, systemctl reboot and systemctl power-off may be blocked, but sudo systemctl reboot or sudo reboot will succeed.

It could be convenient to use the Javascript array member function includes(), but that is not recognized by polkitd version 122.

When an action is allowed, commands like pkcheck -u -p $$ -a org.freedesktop.login1.reboot should return 0. To learn more about the rules, invoke pkaction -va org.freedesktop.login1.reboot.

To update the policy rules, polkitd must be restarted. The command sudo invoke-rc.d dbus restart does that. Beware that it may kill GUI sessions and confuse graphical environments. You may also want to check sudo journalctl -u polkit for any syntax errors.

Old way: dynamically reconfiguring systemd

You might use the following script, say, /etc/systemd/system/vdr-keep-alive.sh. You could edit the TARGETS below to include suspend, hibernate, or others mentioned in man 7 systemd.special. Executing the script will require super user privileges.

#!/bin/sh

TARGETS="
/lib/systemd/system/poweroff.target.d
/lib/systemd/system/reboot.target.d
/lib/systemd/system/halt.target.d
"
CONF=vdr-keep-alive.conf

case "$1" in
start)
  for t in $TARGETS
  do
    if [ ! -f "$t/$CONF" ]
    then
      if [ ! -d "$t/" ]
      then
        mkdir "$t"
      fi
      echo "[Unit]\nRefuseManualStart=yes" > "$t/$CONF"
    fi
  done
  ;;
stop)
  for t in $TARGETS
  do
    rm -f "$t/$CONF"
  done
  ;;
esac

exec systemctl daemon-reload

You can execute this script as follows:

sudo /etc/systemd/system/vdr-keep-alive.sh start
sudo /etc/systemd/system/vdr-keep-alive.sh stop

Another option might be to dynamically create or remove a file /etc/systemd/logind.conf.d/00-buttons.conf with content like the following:

[Login]
HandlePowerKey=ignore
HandleSuspendKey=ignore
HandleHibernateKey=ignore
HandleLidSwitch=ignore
HandleRebootKey=ignore

For the changes to take effect, systemd-logind would have to be restarted or told to reload its configuration. Unlike the what the above script does, these definitions would not prevent commands like sudo reboot from working.

Shutting down VDR

Last, we need a VDR shutdown script /var/lib/vdr/vdr-shutdown.sh that will power off the storage so that it can be safely detached, or shut down the system and schedule a restart for the next timer:

#!/bin/sh
#exec >> /var/tmp/vdr-shutdown.txt 2>&1; set -x; : "$@"
set -eu
HIBERN=120 # time in seconds to suspend to disk + resume from it
#FALLBACK_SHUTDOWN_DELAY=86400 # seconds
#STORAGE=/dev/disk/by-label/VDR
#STORAGE_MOUNT=video.mount
[ -n "${STORAGE:-}" ] && sudo systemd-mount -u "$STORAGE"
if [ "$5" = 1 -a -n "${STORAGE:-}" ]
then
  sudo rtcwake -m no -s "$2" || :
  #sudo sh /etc/systemd/system/vdr-keep-alive.sh stop
  exec sudo udisksctl power-off -b "$STORAGE"
elif [ "$2" = 0 ]
then
  sudo rtcwake -m disable || :
  #sudo sh /etc/systemd/system/vdr-keep-alive.sh stop
  exec sudo systemctl poweroff
elif [ "$2" -ge $HIBERN ] && sudo rtcwake -m disk -s $(($2 - $HIBERN / 2))
then
  :
elif sudo rtcwake -m mem -s "$2"
then
  :
elif [ "$2" -ge "${FALLBACK_SHUTDOWN_DELAY:-}" ]
then
  #sudo sh /etc/systemd/system/vdr-keep-alive.sh stop
  exec sudo systemctl poweroff
fi
[ -n "${STORAGE_MOUNT:-}" ] && exec sudo systemctl start "${STORAGE_MOUNT}"
[ -n "${STORAGE:-}" ] && exec sudo systemd-mount "$STORAGE"

Wake on timer

The script relies on the versatile command rtcwake for wake-on-timer control.

You may want to replace the #exec line with exec to enable debug output to the file /var/tmp/vdr-shutdown.txt. This file should survive system shutdown and restart.

Adjust HIBERN to the time it takes to suspend to disk and resume from it. If this fails because no swap space has been configured, the script will fall back to suspend-to-RAM.

If there is no real-time clock device for scheduling wake-up (say, on a Raspberry Pi), all rtcwake commands will fail. It would be the user's responsibility to shut down or wake up the system between recordings (or leave it running all the time). You might want to set FALLBACK_SHUTDOWN_DELAY at the start of the script to have an automatic shutdown (followed by manual wakeup) if the next scheduled recording is in distant enough future.

Some systems are unable to wake up after power-off; see rtcwake for details. On an affected system, you might want to remove the section starting with if [ "$5" = 1 to let the power button press lead directly to suspend-to-disk or suspend-to-RAM, just like an inactivity timeout would.

Detachable storage

When the lines starting with #STORAGE= and #STORAGE_MOUNT= are commented out, there will be no difference between the user pressing the Power button, and the system being shut down due to an inactivity timeout.

If you want to use detachable video storage, uncomment the line(s) and adjust the directory name if needed. The rest of this section assumes that you have done so.

If any process is using the STORAGE mount point, the system will refuse to shut down for any reason (inactivity timeout, or the Power button being pressed). In VDR, an active recording or the playback of a recording (even a paused playback) counts as using the mount point.

If unmounting the STORAGE succeeds, and the Power button was pressed, the line starting with if [ "$5" = 1 will power off the storage using udisksctl. This will also shut down VDR if vdr.service defines the following:

[Unit]
BindsTo=dev-disk-by\x2dlabel-VDR.device

Even though VDR will be shut down, the rest of the system will remain powered on. The power LED indicator on a USB storage device will become an indicator of two things:

• whether it is safe to disconnect the cable; you can plug it in again to have VDR start up (on same or different drive)
• whether shutdown is possible, by pressing the Power button one more time

If there is no recording scheduled in the future ("$2" = 0), the system will be shut down.

Otherwise, the script will try to suspend or hibernate the system until the next timed recording is scheduled. Finally, the storage will be mounted. In this way, the storage may be temporarily removed from a system while it is suspended or hibernated by rtcwake. The variable STORAGE_MOUNT is needed, because when systemd-mount is invoked with one argument, it may mount the block device under /run/media/system/ instead of using a custom mount unit that is associated with the device.

Notes

You can still execute the following commands to stop or start the VDR service, for example, for upgrading VDR or plugins:

sudo systemctl stop vdr
sudo systemctl start vdr

If you use these commands, the storage device will remain mounted in the file system, and the status of the reboot and shutdown targets will not change.