Fail to start nodered.service on raspberry pi

General
1

Hi, I am having some issues with the nodered.service

Node-RED version: v1.3.5
Node.js version: v14.17.0
Linux 5.4.51+ arm LE
raspberry pi Zero W

I can start node-red-pi as user (2E3) without problems.

However when I wan to setup node red as a service through :
systemctl start nodered.service

I get this failure:
Failed to start nodered.service: Unit nodered.service has a bad unit file setting.
See system logs and 'systemctl status nodered.service' for details.

status says:

nodered.service - Node-RED graphical event wiring tool
Loaded: bad-setting (Reason: Unit nodered.service has a bad unit file setting.)
Active: inactive (dead) since Fri 2021-06-25 16:47:52 CEST; 28min ago
Docs: Redirecting…
Main PID: 6020 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)

/lib/systemd/system/nodered.service:8: Invalid user/group name or numeric ID: 2E3

My nodered.service files contains

systemd service file to start Node-RED

[Unit]
Description=Node-RED graphical event wiring tool
#After=syslog.target network.target
Wants=network.target
Documentation=Redirecting…

[Service]
Type=simple

Run as normal pi user - change to the user name you wish to run Node-RED as

User=2E3 ---> ERROR ????
Group=2E3
WorkingDirectory=/home/2E3/.node-red

Environment="NODE_OPTIONS=--max_old_space_size=256"

uncomment and edit next line if you need an http proxy

#Environment="HTTP_PROXY=my.httpproxy.server.address"

uncomment the next line for a more verbose log output

#Environment="NODE_RED_OPTIONS=-v"

uncomment next line if you need to wait for time sync before starting

#ExecStartPre=/bin/bash -c '/bin/journalctl -b -u systemd-timesyncd | /bin/grep -q "systemd-timesyncd.* Synchronized to time server"'

ExecStart=/usr/bin/env node-red-pi $NODE_OPTIONS $NODE_RED_OPTIONS
#ExecStart=/usr/bin/env node $NODE_OPTIONS red.js $NODE_RED_OPTIONS

Use SIGINT to stop

KillSignal=SIGINT

Auto restart on crash

Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=20

Tag things in the log

SyslogIdentifier=Node-RED
#StandardOutput=syslog

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

I can not find a solution

Any ideas ?

Thx
2E3

2

Welcome to the forum @2E3

It is generally considered a bad idea to start a username with a digit. A number of commands will not cope with that. I imagine that this is the cause of the problem you are having.

3

Thx Colin, I will create a new profile and try again.

4

Dear @Colin

Works perfect! Thank you for the advice

5

I don't want to hijack a thread, but 2E3 has closed his question (works perfect) and i want to add a question regarding the same topic.
I usually set up my raspis with the command sudo systemctl enable nodered.service.
2E3 used start instead of enable. Is there a difference between these commands?

6

start starts the service running.
enable says start it running each time the device boots, it does not not start it immediately.

7

Thank you!