Sab won't start as a service on Linux Mint unless I log in after startup
Posted: July 29th, 2026, 11:00 pm
I am setting up a laptop with the latest version of Linux Mint (22.3). I have been running Sabnzbdplus as a service on an older laptop, which runs Mint 21, and it's been running beautifully on that machine,
On the new laptop, I followed the instructions in the Wiki for installing the Ubuntu version of Sabnzbdplus and setting it up as a service, running with USER set to my own username. AFAIK, this is much the same as what I did on the old machine.
My problem is that the service fails to start on boot, unless I immediately login after it boots. If I login immediately, the service starts and it seems to run fine.
When it doesn't start, the error message from ""systemctl status sabnzbdplus.service" says "Cannot create folder "/home/leon/.sabnzbd"." So, for some reason it needs me to login before it has permission, even though I am running it with USER=leon set in /etc/default/sabnzbdplus.
One thing that comes to mind is that I backed up my Sab config file on the old machine", and then restored it on the new machine. When it runs, it runs beautifully again.
At least I've worked out the pattern now, so that's some progress.
I'm feeling a bit out of my depth here, so thanks in advance for any help.
On the new laptop, I followed the instructions in the Wiki for installing the Ubuntu version of Sabnzbdplus and setting it up as a service, running with USER set to my own username. AFAIK, this is much the same as what I did on the old machine.
My problem is that the service fails to start on boot, unless I immediately login after it boots. If I login immediately, the service starts and it seems to run fine.
When it doesn't start, the error message from ""systemctl status sabnzbdplus.service" says "Cannot create folder "/home/leon/.sabnzbd"." So, for some reason it needs me to login before it has permission, even though I am running it with USER=leon set in /etc/default/sabnzbdplus.
One thing that comes to mind is that I backed up my Sab config file on the old machine", and then restored it on the new machine. When it runs, it runs beautifully again.
At least I've worked out the pattern now, so that's some progress.
I'm feeling a bit out of my depth here, so thanks in advance for any help.