Nextcloud Desktop as a user service with systemd

• https://blog.victormendonca.com/2018/05/14/creating-a-simple-systemd-user-service/
• https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/8/html/configuring_and_managing_networking/systemd-network-targets-and-services_configuring-and-managing-networking
• https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/NetworkTarget/
• https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/systemd-networkd-wait-online.service.html
• https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/systemd.special.html
• https://forum.qt.io/topic/93247/qt-qpa-plugin-could-not-load-the-qt-platform-plugin-xcb-in-even-though-it-was-found/9
• https://github.com/nextcloud/desktop/issues/728
• https://www.unixsysadmin.com/systemd-user-services/
• https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-desktop-74/start-gui-application-from-systemd-unit-service-4175591018/
• https://www.makeuseof.com/what-is-systemd-launch-programs-raspberry-pi/
• https://blog.svedr.in/posts/running-the-nextcloud-client-under-systemd/

Since quite some time I am annoyed by the Nextcloud client starting before the internet connection becomes available. That leads to a situation in which the Nextcloud Desktop Client presents a browser window with a login mask because it assumes it is disconnected.

My approach will start and manage the Nextcloud Desktop Client as a systemd user service as soon as a network connection becomes ready.

• remove Nextcloud from autostart
• tick “start with an empty session” under “Desktop Session” in System Settings

Check if the correct oneshot “wait” system service is enabled (NetworkManager in my case).

systemctl is-enabled NetworkManager-wait-online.service systemd-networkd-wait-online.service

enabled
Failed to get unit file state for systemd-networkd-wait-online.service: No such file or directory

# as user
mkdir -pv ~/.config/systemd/user/
vim ~/.config/systemd/user/nextcloud-desktop.service

[Unit]
Description=Nextcloud Desktop Client
After=network-online.target
Wants=network-online.target NetworkManager-wait-online.service

[Service]
Type=simple      
StandardOutput=journal
ExecStart=/usr/bin/nextcloud
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=5s
LimitNOFILE=65535:65535

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target

enable the service

systemctl --user enable nextcloud-desktop.service

start the service

systemctl --user start nextcloud-desktop.service

check that the service is running

systemctl --user status nextcloud-desktop.service

—- ~~DISCUSSION~~