Why isn't my systemd service automatically starting?

Question

Here is my boondocks-agent.service file. I have installed it in /lib/systemd/system:

[Unit]
Description=Boondocks agent
Requires=\
    balena.service 
After=\
    balena.service 

[Service]
Type=simple
Restart=always
RestartSec=10s
WatchdogSec=60
EnvironmentFile=/etc/boondocks-agent/agent.conf
EnvironmentFile=-/tmp/boondocks-agent.conf
ExecStartPre=-/usr/bin/stop-boondocks-agent
ExecStart=/usr/bin/healthdog --healthcheck=/usr/lib/boondocks-agent/boondocks-agent-healthcheck  /usr/bin/start-boondocks-agent
ExecStop=-/usr/bin/stop-boondocks-agent

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

It doesn't appear to start up when I boot the system. After a clean boot, this is what I see for status:

systemctl status boondocks-agent
boondocks-agent.service - Boondocks agent
   Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/boondocks-agent.service; disabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: inactive (dead)

What do I have to do to make this start up automatically on boot?

Edit

In YOCTO, the equivalent to calling systemctl enable is:

SYSTEMD_SERVICE_${PN} = " \
    boondocks-agent.service
    "

Solution 1

You need to enable it a boot time:

systemctl enable boondocks-agent

Solution 2

You say,

In YOCTO, the equivalent to calling systemctl enable is:

   SYSTEMD_SERVICE_${PN} = " \
       boondocks-agent.service
       "

I think this is the equivalent to installing the service.  To have the service default to enabled you would want to add:

SYSTEMD_AUTO_ENABLE_${PN} = "enable"

Comments

[RQDQ]

@UlrichSchwarz - apologies - the actual service file has the absolute path. The original question has the template I use to generate the file in a YOCTO build. I'll edit.

[RQDQ]

@ErikF - I think in this case, because I'm building the distribution using YOCTO, I am the distribution.

[ErikF]

Sorry, I forgot about that. I've gotten lazy and let my distros do all the grunt work for me! :-) I should really give it a shot; YOCTO looks really interesting.

[RQDQ]

@ErikF - YOCTO is great - once you get past the really really steep learning curve. :-)

[fabatera]

Complementing the EDIT part in the question: From Yocto mega manual v2.4: > By default, the service is enabled to automatically start at boot > time. The default setting is in the systemd class as follows: > > SYSTEMD_AUTO_ENABLE ??= "enable"

[nTOXIC]

SYSTEMD_AUTO_ENABLE is per-default true, if the recipe inherits the systemd class. Therefore it should not be required to set it explicitely to true. See yoctoproject.org/docs/current/mega-manual/…