Package: ulogd2 Version: 2.0.8-3 Severity: important ulogd2.service fails to start intermittently on boot because it races against systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service, which is responsible for creating /run/ulog/ as declared in /usr/lib/tmpfiles.d/ulogd2.conf.
When ulogd2 wins the race, /run/ulog/ does not yet exist. The daemon itself starts successfully (plugins load, UID/GID change completes) but cannot write /run/ulog/ulogd.pid. Since the unit uses Type=forking with PIDFile=/run/ulog/ulogd.pid, systemd waits the full TimeoutStartSec (90s) for the PID file to appear, then marks the service failed: ulogd2.service: Failed to parse PID from file /run/ulog/ulogd.pid: Invalid argument ulogd2.service: start operation timed out. Terminating. ulogd2.service: Failed with result 'timeout'. A manual `systemctl restart ulogd2` always succeeds as /run/ulog/ exists by that point. Suggested fix (either of): 1. Add to [Unit]: After=systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service 2. Or better: replace the tmpfiles.d entry with RuntimeDirectory=ulog in the [Service] section, systemd then creates /run/ulog/ before starting the daemon, eliminating the race entirely.
