Systemd assignment outside of section

Ask Fedora
1

I’m attempting to setup the following service:

/usr/lib/systemd/system/squeezelite.service

[Unit]
Description=Squeezelite headless streaming music client
Documentation=man:squeezelite.service(7)
Wants=sound.target
After=sound.target

[Service]
Type=exec
User=squeezelite
Group=squeezelite
EnvironmentFile=/etc/sysconfig/squeezelite
ExecStart=/usr/bin/squeezelite -N /var/lib/squeezelite/player-name $ARGS
ProtectClock=true
ProtectControlGroups=true
ProtectHome=true
ProtectKernelLogs=true
ProtectKernelModules=true
ProtectKernelTunables=true
ProtectSystem=full

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

/etc/systemd/system/squeezelite.service.d/override.conf

ARGS=-N thuis

It was created with systemctl edit squeezelite. Yet when I (re)start the service and check the status thsi is the resutlt

systemctl status squeezelite


× squeezelite.service - Squeezelite headless streaming music client
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/squeezelite.service; enabled; preset: disabled)
    Drop-In: /usr/lib/systemd/system/service.d
             └─10-timeout-abort.conf
             /etc/systemd/system/squeezelite.service.d
             └─override.conf
     Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Tue 2026-04-28 19:52:43 CEST; 10min ago
   Duration: 76ms
 Invocation: a715b501007840aabf425bb0f06b46b0
       Docs: man:squeezelite.service(7)
    Process: 10919 ExecStart=/usr/bin/squeezelite -N /var/lib/squeezelite/player-name $ARGS (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
   Main PID: 10919 (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
   Mem peak: 11M
        CPU: 104ms

Apr 28 19:52:43 ws-living systemd[1]: Starting squeezelite.service - Squeezelite headless streaming music client...
Apr 28 19:52:43 ws-living systemd[1]: Started squeezelite.service - Squeezelite headless streaming music client.
Apr 28 19:52:43 ws-living squeezelite[10919]: [19:52:43.507756] test_open:281 playback open error: No such file or directory
Apr 28 19:52:43 ws-living squeezelite[10919]: [19:52:43.507815] output_init_common:401 unable to open output device: hdmi
Apr 28 19:52:43 ws-living systemd[1]: squeezelite.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Apr 28 19:52:43 ws-living systemd[1]: squeezelite.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Apr 28 19:52:46 ws-living systemd[1]: /etc/systemd/system/squeezelite.service.d/override.conf:1: Assignment outside of section. Ignoring.

I must have missed something

2

got it in an override file there have to be sections. In this case the override file should be constructed as:

[Service]
Environment="ARGS=-o hdmi"

Or better remove the file and folder all together and create /etc/sysconfig/squeezelite with this slightly different content:

# Optional command line arguments passed to squeezelite(1) system service.
ARGS= -o hdmi

In my defense /etc/sysconfig is not mentioned in the docs