Ubuntu – GUI tool for managing systemd on Ubuntu 18.04 (Bionic Beaver)

18.04administrationguisystemd

Is there a GUI tool for managing systemd on Ubuntu 18.04 (Bionic Beaver)?

I want to be able so see the status of services and/or units (and/or whatever else systemd calls them).

Ideally, I could also filter so as to only display running services. Also filter to only display enabled services.

Apparently, Ubuntu 16.04 had systemd-ui, which I never used.

This article from 2011 mentions some other tools that existed long ago on various Linux distributions.

If there is not a GUI tool, is there a curses tool?

I want to be able to quickly review a list of running and enabled services, and in as few key presses as possible, stop and disable the services/units that I don't want.

Thanks!

Best Answer

I'm surprised no one has mentioned chkservice yet. A curses tool for enabling,disabling, and starting/stopping systemd units. It's even in the usual apt repo, so you can just sudo apt install chkservice.

Calling the queue window in one double-click

Couldn't resist automating the job in a .desktop file in a scandalously dirty hack.

Install xdotool
```
sudo apt-get install xdotool
```
Copy the code below into an empty file, save it as printerqueue.desktop
Then either keep it on your desktop and make it excutable, or save it in ~/.local/share/applications

To use it, double click (on your desktop) or type Printer Queue (in Dash) to invoke the icon, and press return. Wait a few seconds (without clicking anywhere) and steps you did manually are done by the script.

The code

[Desktop Entry]
Exec=/bin/bash -c "'/usr/share/system-config-printer/system-config-printer.py' & sleep 3 && xdotool key Control_L+f"
Name=Printer Queue
Type=Application
Icon=printer

Explanation

The printers window is called by the command:

/usr/share/system-config-printer/system-config-printer.py

If we look into the file, it seems likely that we can somehow hack it to give it the option to show the queue from cli, since the queue window is a transient (child-) window the first one.

That would be the "clean" option on one hand, but I always feel restraint to do such a thing, Even if it was only for the possible trouble during updates.

So, the "honest" dirty option then :)

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Upstart – Is There Any GUI Tool for Upstart

Printing – GUI Tool for Viewing and Managing Print Queue

Calling the queue window in one double-click

The code

Explanation

Related Question