I installed the gnunet package and the GNUnet daemon probably didn't
start successfully. I haven't change any config files.

"# service gnunet status" on a Debian Sid system reports:

●gnunet.service - A framework for secure peer-to-peer networking
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/gnunet.service; enabled; vendor
preset: enabled)
     Active: failed(Result: exit-code) since Sun 2022-01-30 19:54:54
CET; 30min ago
    Process: 448 ExecStart=/usr/bin/gnunet-arm -s -c /etc/gnunet.conf
(code=exited, status=217/USER)
        CPU: 1ms

Jan 30 19:54:54 debian systemd[1]: Starting A framework for secure
peer-to-peer networking...
Jan 30 19:54:54 debian systemd[448]: gnunet.service: Failed to determine
user credentials: No such process
Jan 30 19:54:54 debian systemd[448]: gnunet.service: Failed at step USER
spawning /usr/bin/gnunet-arm: No such process
Jan 30 19:54:54 debian systemd[1]: gnunet.service: Control process
exited, code=exited, status=217/USER
Jan 30 19:54:54 debian systemd[1]: gnunet.service: Failed with result
'exit-code'.
Jan 30 19:54:54 debian systemd[1]: Failed to start A framework for
secure peer-to-peer networking.


I belief that this behavior is not intended.

I first backported the package for myself to my Bullseye system and
tested it there. It probably has similar problems to the original
package from unstable. After that I installed the package on a freshly
installed (Debian 11 without GUI) and upgraded (to Unstable) VM. The
GNUnet daemon seems not to work out of the box there too I guess.

This bug is not only a problem in version 0.15.3-4, but also in 0.13.1-
2, the version currently in stable, and possibly other versions. I
found a complete solution for 0.13.1-2, and part of a solution for the
version currently in 0.15.3-4.

In the .service-file of the gnunet service (normally
/usr/lib/systemd/system/gnunet.service) variable substitution is used
in the "User="-directive, which is not allowed in systemd
(https://github.com/systemd/systemd/issues/5501#issuecomment-283362610
). If you hardcode the gnunet user in this directive like I did here...

[Unit]
Description=A framework for secure peer-to-peer networking

[Service]
User=gnunet
Type=forking
ExecStart=/usr/bin/gnunet-arm -s -c /etc/gnunet.conf
ExecStop=/usr/bin/gnunet-arm -e -c /etc/gnunet.conf

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

...the systemd part works fine.

Unfortunately, there is another problem with the underlying gnunet-arm
command, which is used to start the peer. In my version the problem is
that it searches for the binary in the wrong place, which can be fixed
by specifying its location in the gnunet.conf file like this:

[path]
GNUNET_HOME = /var/lib/gnunet/
GNUNET_DATA_HOME = /var/lib/gnunet/data/
GNUNET_RUNTIME_DIR = /var/run/gnunet/

[arm]
START_SYSTEM_SERVICES = YES
START_USER_SERVICES = NO
BINARY = /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gnunet/libexec/gnunet-service-arm

In 0.15.3-4, gnunet-arm doesn't find the log file, which is a problem I
wasn't able to find a solution for yet.

I hope that these errors can be fixed as fast as possible, especially
regarding that these seem to be merely configuration issues.

Best regards,
Levin Engel

Much of this is still a problem in the current version in testing
(0.17.2-1). The paths to the binaries in the gnunet.conf file seems to
have been fixed, but the other two problems remain.

Levin's solution to the user problem (by putting the real username in
the .service file still works, but gnunet still barfs on the logfile
problem. The solution to that is to put the logfile in /var/log/gnunet.
The current version of gnunet creates this directory, with correct
permissions (0755 gnunet:gnunet), but doesn't update /etc/gnunet.conf
to fit. With that file set up like this:

[path]
GNUNET_HOME = /var/lib/gnunet/
GNUNET_DATA_HOME = /var/lib/gnunet/data/
GNUNET_RUNTIME_DIR = /var/run/gnunet/

[arm]
START_SYSTEM_SERVICES = YES
START_USER_SERVICES = NO
OPTIONS = -l /var/log/gnunet/gnunet.log

   gnunet starts up fine.

 .....Ron Murray

The GNUnet service still doesn't start correctly in version 0.17.6-1.

Version 0.20.0-3 still fails to start because of the incorrect log path in
/etc/gnunet.conf

By changing it to:

OPTIONS = -l /var/log/gnunet/gnunet.log

I can get the gnunet service to start correctly.

control: tags 1004589 + pending

Thank you for providing the fix.

Will be submitting the fix in upload to mentors.

Regards,
Syed Shahrukh Hussain.

We believe that the bug you reported is fixed in the latest version of
gnunet, which is due to be installed in the Debian FTP archive.

A summary of the changes between this version and the previous one is
attached.

Thank you for reporting the bug, which will now be closed.  If you
have further comments please address them to 1004589@bugs.debian.org,
and the maintainer will reopen the bug report if appropriate.

Debian distribution maintenance software
pp.
Syed Shahrukh Hussain <syed.shahrukh@ossrevival.org> (supplier of updated gnunet package)

(This message was generated automatically at their request; if you
believe that there is a problem with it please contact the archive
administrators by mailing ftpmaster@ftp-master.debian.org)
Format: 1.8
Date: Fri, 7 Nov 2025 12:51:27 +0500
Source: gnunet
Built-For-Profiles: noudeb
Architecture: source
Version: 0.20.0-8
Distribution: unstable
Urgency: medium
Maintainer: Debian QA Group <packages@qa.debian.org>
Changed-By: Syed Shahrukh Hussain <syed.shahrukh@ossrevival.org>
Closes: 1004589 1096741
Changes:
 gnunet (0.20.0-8) unstable; urgency=medium
 .
   * QA upload.
   * Fixed service startup problem (Closes: #1004589).
   * Added patch to fix gcc-15 build failure (Closes: #1096741).
   * Updated Standards-Version from 4.7.0 to 4.7.2.
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