Starting QT app as a Systemd service

vmetodiev

Hello QT Community,

I need to start my QT application without XFCE, Gnome, KDE, or what-so-ever desktop environment. I have disabled the lxdm.service (on my Toradex board running Angstrom Linux) and created a custom one that starts the X server only.

xserver.service

[Unit]
Description=X Server
Conflicts=getty@tty1.service plymouth-quit.service
After=systemd-user-sessions.service getty@tty1.service plymouth-quit.service

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/bin/X
ExecStop=/usr/bin/killall -9 X
Restart=always
IgnoreSIGPIPE=no

[Install]
Alias=display-manager.service

This works perfectly. The other service is the QT application itself:

qtapp.service

[Unit]
Description=QT Application
After=xserver.service

[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart=/opt/TestQtApp
ExecStop=/bin/bash -c 'pkill TestQtApp'
Restart=always
IgnoreSIGPIPE=no

[Install]
Alias=qtapp.servic

However, it won’t start due to some enviroment issue. The log in the journal looks like this:

Jan 07 14:58:57 apalis-imx6 systemd[1]: Started QT Application.
Jan 07 14:58:57 apalis-imx6 TestQtApp[607]: QML debugging is enabled. Only use this in a safe environment.
Jan 07 14:58:57 apalis-imx6 TestQtApp[607]: QStandardPaths: XDG_RUNTIME_DIR not set, defaulting to '/tmp/runtime-root'
Jan 07 14:58:57 apalis-imx6 TestQtApp[607]: qt.qpa.screen: QXcbConnection: Could not connect to display
Jan 07 14:58:57 apalis-imx6 TestQtApp[607]: Could not connect to any X display.
Jan 07 14:58:57 apalis-imx6 systemd[1]: qtapp.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Jan 07 14:58:57 apalis-imx6 systemd[1]: qtapp.service: Unit entered failed state.
Jan 07 14:58:57 apalis-imx6 systemd[1]: qtapp.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Jan 07 14:58:57 apalis-imx6 systemd[1]: qtapp.service: Service hold-off time over, scheduling restart.
Jan 07 14:58:57 apalis-imx6 systemd[1]: Stopped QT Application.
Jan 07 14:58:57 apalis-imx6 systemd[1]: Started QT Application.

Merging the commands for starting the X server and the QT application within a single service behaves similarly - I see the X process running, but not the QT application.

Logging into the Bash shell and executing the "ExecStart" commands manually launches the QT application correctly.

May someone advise on this?

Thank you in advance!

Pl45m4

@vmetodiev

What kind of application is this?

Jan 07 14:58:57 apalis-imx6 TestQtApp[607]: qt.qpa.screen: QXcbConnection: Could not connect to display

Jan 07 14:58:57 apalis-imx6 TestQtApp[607]: Could not connect to any X display.

AFAIK you cant start a QGuiApplication without any running X-Server

KroMignon

@vmetodiev said in Starting QT app as a Systemd service:

Merging the commands for starting the X server and the QT application within a single service behaves similarly - I see the X process running, but not the QT application.
Logging into the Bash shell and executing the "ExecStart" commands manually launches the QT application correctly.
May someone advise on this?
Thank you in advance!

If you want to daemonize your application, you must use QCoreApplication and not QGuiApplication or QApplication.

You could add a startup parameter to select appropriated base class:

int startGraphicVersion(int argc, char *argv[])
{
   QGuiApplication app(argc, argv);
   ...
   return app.exec();
}
int startAsService(int argc, char *argv[])
{
   QCoreApplication app(argc, argv);
   ...
   return app.exec();
}
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
    int returnCode = -1;

    if(argc > 1 && strcmp(argv[1], "-daemon") == 0)
    {
        returnCode = startAsService(argc, argv);
    }
    else
    {
        returnCode = startGraphicVersion(argc, argv);
    }
   return returnCode;
}

SGaist

Hi,

Do you even need to have X running ? Wouldn't using the eglfs backend be simpler and less power hungry on your board ?

That said, you should start your application with the QT_DEBUG_PLUGINS environment variable set to 1 to see exactly what is going wrong.

For example, the DISPLAY environment variable might be set to an invalid value.

vmetodiev

@Pl45m4, @KroMignon

Well, here is a snippet from my main function:

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
     QCoreApplication::setAttribute(Qt::AA_EnableHighDpiScaling);

     QGuiApplication app(argc, argv);
     QQmlApplicationEngine engine;
     ...
}

I will read a bit more about QCore and QGui... now it is some kind of a Frankenstein :D

@SGaist

Yes, I always start the X server before attempting to launch the QT application.
It also starts correctly as a systemd service.

About "eglfs" - thanks for mentioning this, I will read about it as well and write another post. I have no idea what you are taking about right now.

Thank you guys for your support and informative directions!

JonB

@vmetodiev
I am not an expert, but how can you have a QGuiApplication and/or a QQmlApplicationEngine if you're not going to have any UI or interaction?

vmetodiev

@JonB

I agree! My goal is to make the GUI application start as a service with only the X server running beneath it, without LXDE or any other desktop environment.

I am just struggling how to achieve it no additional overhead...

KroMignon

@vmetodiev said in Starting QT app as a Systemd service:

I agree! My goal is to make the GUI application start as a service with only the X server running beneath it, without LXDE or any other desktop environment.
I am just struggling how to achieve it no additional overhead...

So you want to start you Qt QML/QWidget application with SystemD and X-Server.
Your error looks very similar to this ==> https://community.toradex.com/t/starting-qt-app-as-a-systemd-service/15954

So I guess you have to change qtapp.service to setup QT_QPA_PLATFORM.
Something like this:

[Unit]
Description=QT Application
After=xserver.service

[Service]
Type=simple
Environment="QT_QPA_PLATFORM=wayland-egl"
ExecStart=/opt/TestQtApp
ExecStop=/bin/bash -c 'pkill TestQtApp'
Restart=always
IgnoreSIGPIPE=no

[Install]
Alias=qtapp.service

raven-worx

@vmetodiev said in Starting QT app as a Systemd service:

Jan 07 14:58:57 apalis-imx6 TestQtApp[607]: qt.qpa.screen: QXcbConnection: Could not connect to display
Jan 07 14:58:57 apalis-imx6 TestQtApp[607]: Could not connect to any X display.

i think you are just missing the "DISPLAY=:0" env variable?

try it manually by calling

DISPLAY=:0 /opt/TestQtApp

vmetodiev

@KroMignon
Your error looks very similar to this ==> https://community.toradex.com/t/starting-qt-app-as-a-systemd-service/15954
-> Absolutely :D It was posted by me in the Toradex forum, than I switched here...

Environment="QT_QPA_PLATFORM=wayland-egl"
-> As far I understand, in this case the QT app will work with Wayland instead of the X server, correct?

@raven-worx
Well, I added it as an enviroment and achived a certain progress.

root@apalis-imx6:~# cat /lib/systemd/system/qtapp.service
[Unit]
Description=QT Application
After=xserver.service

[Service]
Type=simple
Environment="DISPLAY=:0"
ExecStart=/opt/TestQtApp
ExecStop=/bin/bash -c 'pkill TestQtApp'
Restart=always
IgnoreSIGPIPE=no

[Install]
Alias=qtapp.service

The service now starts when I manually invoke it by "systemctl start qtapp".
Nevertheless, it won't start automatically after reboot. The journal log is empty. Maybe the "After=xserver.service" is not quite correct?

raven-worx

@vmetodiev
do you start the xserver service manually?
if not you are also missing Require=xserver.service so it is ensured that its running when your qt app gets started

also to start it after reboot, you have to call systemctl enable qtapp

vmetodiev

@raven-worx

Yes, the service is enabled. Well, I added "Requires=xserver.service", but still the qtapp.service would not start.

The xserver is fine upon reboot, visible inside "ps -auxf".

Invoking " systemctl start qtapp" start the Qt app...

SGaist

Maybe this service example might help.

KroMignon

@vmetodiev said in Starting QT app as a Systemd service:

Invoking " systemctl start qtapp" start the Qt app...

I am far a way to be a systemd expert, so I may be wrong.
But I guess you have to add WantedBy=multi-user.target in the [Install] section to start the service automatically.

raven-worx

@KroMignon said in Starting QT app as a Systemd service:

But I guess you have to add WantedBy=multi-user.target in the [Install] section to start the service automatically.

yep, thats true, good catch

vmetodiev

@SGaist @KroMignon
Yes, your suggestions helped. Now it works perfectly. Thank you so much for your support!!!

I am providing the service files below:

xserver.service

[Unit]
Description=X Server
Conflicts=getty@tty1.service plymouth-quit.service
After=systemd-user-sessions.service getty@tty1.service plymouth-quit.service

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/bin/X
ExecStop=/usr/bin/killall -9 X
Restart=always
IgnoreSIGPIPE=no

[Install]
Alias=display-manager.service

qtapp.service

[Unit]
Description=QT Application
Requires=xserver.service
After=xserver.service

[Service]
Type=simple
Environment="DISPLAY=:0"
ExecStart=/opt/TestQtApp
ExecStop=/bin/bash -c 'pkill TestQtApp'
Restart=always
IgnoreSIGPIPE=no

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target