fwupd 1.2.3 Debian : Failed to connect to daemon: Error calling StartServiceByName for org.freedesktop.fwupd: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.TimedOut: Failed to activate service 'org.freedesktop.fwupd': timed out

[swidz]

$ fwupdmgr --version
client version:	1.2.3
compile-time dependency versions
	gusb:	0.2.9
	efivar:	34
Failed to connect to daemon: Error calling StartServiceByName for org.freedesktop.fwupd: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.TimedOut: Failed to activate service 'org.freedesktop.fwupd': timed out

fwupdmgr get-devices
Error calling StartServiceByName for org.freedesktop.fwupd: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.TimedOut: Failed to activate service 'org.freedesktop.fwupd': timed out

after deleting the pending.db file which in my case was not located in /var/lib/fwupd but in /var/local/lib/fwupd

$ fwupdmgr --version
client version:	1.2.3
compile-time dependency versions
	gusb:	0.2.9
	efivar:	34
Failed to connect to daemon: Error calling StartServiceByName for org.freedesktop.fwupd: Timeout was reached

But the file pending.db is getting recreated in /var/local/lib/fwupd

Please answer the following questions:

Operating system and version: Debian 9.6 
How did you install fwupd: build with meson and ninja
Have you tried rebooting? Yes
Are you using an NVMe disk? Yes

pending.db.zip

[hughsie]

Can you get the fwupd --verbose output please.

[superm1]

My guess is the systemd unit isn't getting installed somewhere proper, or that the information needed for dbus activation isn't.

For example maybe something in /usr/local isn't in default search path on Debian 9.

[swidz]

~$ fwupd --verbose
bash: fwupd: command not found

$ systemctl list-unit-files --type=service
...
fwupd-offline-update.service               static   
fwupd.service                              static
...

$sudo systemctl status fwupd.service
● fwupd.service - Firmware update daemon
   Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/fwupd.service; static; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: inactive (dead)
     Docs: https://fwupd.org/

Jan 06 00:09:04 DELL-T3600 systemd[1]: Starting Firmware update daemon...
Jan 06 00:09:05 DELL-T3600 systemd[1]: Started Firmware update daemon.
Jan 06 00:14:05 DELL-T3600 systemd[1]: Starting Firmware update daemon...
Jan 06 00:14:05 DELL-T3600 systemd[1]: Started Firmware update daemon.

please also see the issues I had during build and how I solve them, maybe it is related:
https://github.com/hughsie/fwupd/issues/914

[superm1]

And do you have any fwupd related packages installed from Debian repos?

[superm1]

Regarding this:

~$ fwupd --verbose
bash: fwupd: command not found

That's to be expected, /usr/local/libexec/fwupd/ is not in PATH by default.
You would have to run /usr/local/libexec/fwupd/fwupd -v to manually execute it.

I guess it would be good to see if that works.

[swidz]

And do you have any fwupd related packages installed from Debian repos?

I had fwupd installed from debian stretch repo version (version 0.7.4-2), but I had removed this. It was before a successful build, but after first attepts with the described issues.

I am attaching fwupd verbose ran with and without sudo

fwupd-verbose.txt
sudo-fwupd-verbose.txt

[superm1]

Something seems wrong with the dbus setup.

15:01:16:0475 FuMain               FuMain: lost name: org.freedesktop.fwupd

I think it might be the stuff ending up in /usr/local/etc/dbus-1 isn't being sourced by default.

[swidz]

in /usr/local/etc/dbus-1 there is a subdirectory system.d with a single file org.freedesktop.fwupd.conf

The content of the file org.freedesktop.fwupd.conf:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <!-- -*- XML -*- -->

<!DOCTYPE busconfig PUBLIC
 "-//freedesktop//DTD D-BUS Bus Configuration 1.0//EN"
 "http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/dbus/1.0/busconfig.dtd">
<busconfig>

  <!-- This configuration file specifies the required security policies
       for the fwupd to work. -->

  <!-- Only user root can own the fwupd service -->
  <policy user="root">
    <allow own="org.freedesktop.fwupd"/>
  </policy>

 <!-- Allow anyone to call into the service - we'll reject callers using PolicyKit -->
  <policy context="default">
    <allow send_destination="org.freedesktop.fwupd"
           send_interface="org.freedesktop.fwupd"/>
    <allow send_destination="org.freedesktop.fwupd"
           send_interface="org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties"/>
    <allow send_destination="org.freedesktop.fwupd"
           send_interface="org.freedesktop.DBus.Introspectable"/>
    <allow send_destination="org.freedesktop.fwupd"
           send_interface="org.freedesktop.DBus.Peer"/>
  </policy>

</busconfig>   

[swidz]

I have uninstalled the 1.2.3 version with ninja -C build uninstall and installed this version via snap.
It works. I was able to update the Unifying Receiver.

I am attaching the output of fwupd --verbose from snap

snap-sudo-fwupd-verbose.txt

[superm1]

Thanks for confirming. I think we should keep this issue open to track solving this behavior for users though.

[superm1]

I can reproduce this error on Ubuntu from source. If the file /usr/local/etc/dbus-1/system.d/org.freedesktop.fwupd.conf is copied into /etc/dbus-1/system.d the error goes away.

Additionally the following steps make it go away:

1. Create /etc/dbus-1/system-local.conf with following contents

<busconfig>
    <includedir>/usr/local/etc/dbus-1/system.d</includedir>
</busconfig

2. Reload dbus daemon

systemctl reload dbus.service

[superm1]

This behavior exists with upstream dbus as well. I've filed this bug for upstream tracking.
https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/dbus/dbus/issues/253

I've also adjusted https://github.com/hughsie/fwupd/wiki/Compilation to reflect the information discovered in this bug.

[dnoliver]

Scratched my head for a while with this error on Ubuntu 20.04:

The wiki say /usr/local/etc/ but the path in 20.04 seems to be /usr/local/share

root@test-NUC8v5PNK:~/fwupd# cat /etc/dbus-1/system-local.conf
<busconfig>
    <includedir>/usr/local/share/dbus-1/system.d</includedir>
</busconfig>

:)

[superm1]

That is odd to me, but go ahead and add it to the wiki page with a footnote! :)