systemctl --user in LXC failed with error: Failed to connect to bus: No medium found

[alex11]

Hi everyone,

I'm currently facing an issue while trying to use systemctl --user within an LXC. Whenever I run any systemctl --user command, I receive the following error message:

(error from Debian 12) Failed to connect to bus: No medium found
(error from Fedora 41) Failed to connect to user scope bus via local transport: No medium found

It used to work until I rebooted my PVE. I'm not sure what additional information might be helpful for troubleshooting this problem, so I would appreciate any guidance on what details to provide.

Here are some details:

LXC OS: Debian 12 and Fedora 41
PVE version: 8.4.1

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

 

[dakralex]

Hi!

Were there any package upgrades before rebooting? Were there any kernel upgrades in between? Is the output of last reboot -F -n 3?

 

[alex11]

Hi dakralex,

Were there any package upgrades before rebooting?

Yes.

Were there any kernel upgrades in between?

I think no.

Is the output of last reboot -F -n 3?

Do you mean "What is the output of last reboot -F -n 3?" or "Is kernel versions before and after reboot matches the output of last reboot -F -n 3?"

Here is the output of last reboot -F -n 3:

root@pve:~# last reboot -F -n 3
reboot   system boot  6.8.12-9-pve     Fri Apr 18 21:09:35 2025   still running
reboot   system boot  6.5.13-1-pve     Fri Apr 18 19:19:29 2025 - Fri Apr 18 21:09:17 2025  (01:49)
reboot   system boot  6.5.13-1-pve     Thu Apr 17 19:26:38 2025 - Fri Apr 18 19:19:09 2025  (23:52)

wtmp begins Wed Aug 16 23:24:57 2023

I rebooted system at Fri Apr 18 19:19:09 2025 and found systemctl --user failed. Then I upgraded packages and kernel and rebooted at Fri Apr 18 21:09:17 2025, but still failed. I think I made an upgrade between Thu Apr 17 19:26:38 2025 and Fri Apr 18 19:19:09 2025, but I'm not certain about the time.

Thanks for your help and let me know if you need more details!

 

[dakralex]

I rebooted system at Fri Apr 18 19:19:09 2025 and found systemctl --user failed.

Hm, I wonder why it worked before. Have you used it as the container's root user or as a separate user with that command? For the former it shouldn't work as the root user doesn't have its own user service manager.

 

[alex11]

Have you used it as the container's root user or as a separate user with that command?

A normal user in container, not root.

 

[dakralex]

What is the output of echo $DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS and echo $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR for that user? If those are directories, what are their permissions and do you have read/write access?