FreeBSD 13 Service Starts Manually But Not At Boot

📖 ~1 min read

Table of contents

1. Symptom & Impact
2. Environment & Reproduction
3. Root Cause Analysis
4. Quick Triage
5. Step-by-Step Diagnosis
6. Solution – Primary Fix
7. Solution – Alternative Approaches
8. Verification & Acceptance Criteria
9. Rollback Plan
10. Prevention & Hardening
11. Related Errors & Cross-Refs
12. References & Further Reading

Symptom & Impact

A service may run interactively but skip boot startup when rc integration is incomplete.

Environment & Reproduction

After reboot, process is absent until service start is executed manually.

Root Cause Analysis

Missing *_enable variable, bad rc script permissions, or dependency ordering gaps are frequent causes.

Quick Triage

Check service rcvar, inspect /etc/rc.conf, and review boot messages for rc script errors.

Step-by-Step Diagnosis

Verify whether startup variables exist and are parsed correctly. image_ref=0

Solution – Primary Fix

Set required variable via sysrc, fix rc script mode and headers, then reboot or test with service start. image_ref=1

Solution – Alternative Approaches

Use service command lifecycle controls and confirm the script advertises proper REQUIRE and PROVIDE tags.

Verification & Acceptance Criteria

Keep all startup toggles in /etc/rc.conf and remove duplicate definitions from ad hoc files.

Rollback Plan

For network services, ensure interface availability and pf rules are ready before daemon start.

Prevention & Hardening

Reboot and confirm service comes up automatically with expected listening ports and PID.

Related Errors & Cross-Refs

Add post-boot checks in monitoring to alert when expected services are not active.

Related tutorial: View the step-by-step tutorial for freebsd-13.

View all freebsd-13 tutorials on the Tutorials Hub →

Browse all common problems & solutions on the Tutorials Hub.

References & Further Reading

Read man rc, man rc.conf, and service script conventions in FreeBSD docs.