Starting a systemd service to open the protonvpn causes the application to start with issues.

[maremike]

We are happy to answer your questions about the code or discuss technical ideas.

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• This isn't a feature request
• [ ] This is not a report about my app not working as expected

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PC1: Fedora 41 & Gnome 47
PC2: Debian 12 & KDE Plasma 5.103.0

Im trying to start protonvpn at boot using a systemd service. I got the app to work on my debian machine, but I am struggling with fedora. I used the same scripts for both. The applications start on both OS', but on Fedora I get the error

Something went wrong. An unexpected error occurred

. It says constantly

Loading App...

on the interface and does not show to current servers. When pressing "Quick Connect", the same error (Something went wrong. An unexpected error occurred) reappears. If I enable the service and reboot, the application does not start (not visible in the system tray)

This is the service file:

"/etc/systemd/system/proton-vpn.service" (even if I change from fork to simple nothing changes)

[Unit]

Description=ProtonVPN Client
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=fork
ExecStart=/bin/protonvpn-app
Restart=on-failure
EnvironmentFile=/etc/default/protonvpn
User=username
Group=username

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target

The environment file:

"/etc/default/protonvpn"

XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/user/1000

DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS=unix:path=/run/user/1000/bus

On Fedora I get the following journalctl output:

"journalctl -u proton-vpn.service"

Started proton-vpn.service - ProtonVPN Client. Dec 30 22:51:41 apollo protonvpn-app[11557]: 2024-12-30T21:51:41.590836+00:00 | proton.vpn.core.connection:459 | INFO | CONN:STATE_CHANGED | Disconnected (initial state) Dec 30 22:51:41 apollo protonvpn-app[11557]: 2024-12-30T21:51:41.592173+00:00 | proton.vpn.app.gtk.app:57 | INFO | APP:PROCESS_START | self= Dec 30 22:51:41 apollo protonvpn-app[11557]: 2024-12-30T21:51:41.645333+00:00 | proton.vpn.app.gtk.widgets.main.tray_indicator:45 | INFO | AyanaAppIndicator3 not found: Namespa> Dec 30 22:51:41 apollo protonvpn-app[11557]: 2024-12-30T21:51:41.648199+00:00 | proton.vpn.core.refresher.vpn_data_refresher:167 | INFO | APP.VPN_DATA_REFRESHER:ENABLE | VPN da> Dec 30 22:51:41 apollo protonvpn-app[11557]: 2024-12-30T21:51:41.648347+00:00 | proton.vpn.core.refresher.vpn_data_refresher:175 | INFO | Next client config refresh scheduled i> Dec 30 22:51:41 apollo protonvpn-app[11557]: 2024-12-30T21:51:41.648433+00:00 | proton.vpn.core.refresher.vpn_data_refresher:184 | INFO | Next server list refresh scheduled in > Dec 30 22:51:41 apollo protonvpn-app[11557]: 2024-12-30T21:51:41.648981+00:00 | proton.vpn.core.refresher.vpn_data_refresher:193 | INFO | Next certificate refresh scheduled in > Dec 30 22:51:41 apollo protonvpn-app[11557]: 2024-12-30T21:51:41.649072+00:00 | proton.vpn.core.refresher.vpn_data_refresher:202 | INFO | Next feature flags refresh scheduled i> Dec 30 22:51:41 apollo protonvpn-app[11557]: 2024-12-30T21:51:41.649397+00:00 | proton.vpn.session.utils:107 | INFO | API:REQUEST | '/vpn/v1/loads' Dec 30 22:51:41 apollo protonvpn-app[11557]: 2024-12-30T21:51:41.667475+00:00 | dbus.proxies:407 | ERROR | Introspect error on :1.16:/org/freedesktop/login1/seat/auto: dbus.exc> Dec 30 22:51:41 apollo protonvpn-app[11557]: 2024-12-30T21:51:41.667962+00:00 | proton.vpn.app.gtk.utils.exception_handler:257 | CRITICAL | APP:CRASH | Unexpected error. Dec 30 22:51:41 apollo protonvpn-app[11557]: Traceback (most recent call last): Dec 30 22:51:41 apollo protonvpn-app[11557]: File "/usr/lib/python3.13/site-packages/proton/vpn/app/gtk/widgets/vpn/vpn_widget.py", line 183, in _on_refresher_enabled Dec 30 22:51:41 apollo protonvpn-app[11557]: self.display(self._controller.user_tier, self._controller.server_list) Dec 30 22:51:41 apollo protonvpn-app[11557]: ~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Dec 30 22:51:41 apollo protonvpn-app[11557]: File "/usr/lib/python3.13/site-packages/proton/vpn/app/gtk/widgets/vpn/vpn_widget.py", line 205, in display Dec 30 22:51:41 apollo protonvpn-app[11557]: self._controller.reconnector.enable() Dec 30 22:51:41 apollo protonvpn-app[11557]: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^ Dec 30 22:51:41 apollo protonvpn-app[11557]: File "/usr/lib/python3.13/site-packages/proton/vpn/app/gtk/services/reconnector/reconnector.py", line 93, in enable Dec 30 22:51:41 apollo protonvpn-app[11557]: self._session_monitor.enable() Dec 30 22:51:41 apollo protonvpn-app[11557]: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^ Dec 30 22:51:41 apollo protonvpn-app[11557]: File "/usr/lib/python3.13/site-packages/proton/vpn/app/gtk/services/reconnector/session_monitor.py", line 61, in enable Dec 30 22:51:41 apollo protonvpn-app[11557]: self._setup() Dec 30 22:51:41 apollo protonvpn-app[11557]: ~~~~~~~~~~~^^ Dec 30 22:51:41 apollo protonvpn-app[11557]: File "/usr/lib/python3.13/site-packages/proton/vpn/app/gtk/services/reconnector/session_monitor.py", line 102, in _setup Dec 30 22:51:41 apollo protonvpn-app[11557]: seat_properties = seat_auto_properties_proxy.GetAll(SEAT_INTERFACE) Dec 30 22:51:41 apollo protonvpn-app[11557]: File "/usr/lib64/python3.13/site-packages/dbus/proxies.py", line 72, in __call__ Dec 30 22:51:41 apollo protonvpn-app[11557]: return self._proxy_method(*args, **keywords) Dec 30 22:51:41 apollo protonvpn-app[11557]: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Dec 30 22:51:41 apollo protonvpn-app[11557]: File "/usr/lib64/python3.13/site-packages/dbus/proxies.py", line 141, in __call__ Dec 30 22:51:41 apollo protonvpn-app[11557]: return self._connection.call_blocking(self._named_service, Dec 30 22:51:41 apollo protonvpn-app[11557]: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Dec 30 22:51:41 apollo protonvpn-app[11557]: self._object_path, Dec 30 22:51:41 apollo protonvpn-app[11557]: ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Dec 30 22:51:41 apollo protonvpn-app[11557]: ...<3 lines>... Dec 30 22:51:41 apollo protonvpn-app[11557]: args, Dec 30 22:51:41 apollo protonvpn-app[11557]: ^^^^^ Dec 30 22:51:41 apollo protonvpn-app[11557]: **keywords) Dec 30 22:51:41 apollo protonvpn-app[11557]: ^^^^^^^^^^^ Dec 30 22:51:41 apollo protonvpn-app[11557]: File "/usr/lib64/python3.13/site-packages/dbus/connection.py", line 634, in call_blocking Dec 30 22:51:41 apollo protonvpn-app[11557]: reply_message = self.send_message_with_reply_and_block( Dec 30 22:51:41 apollo protonvpn-app[11557]: message, timeout) Dec 30 22:51:41 apollo protonvpn-app[11557]: dbus.exceptions.DBusException: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.UnknownObject: Unknown object '/org/freedesktop/login1/seat/auto'. Dec 30 22:51:41 apollo protonvpn-app[11557]: 2024-12-30T21:51:41.677092+00:00 | proton.vpn.app.gtk.services.reconnector.reconnector:174 | INFO | Network connectivity was detect> Dec 30 22:51:43 apollo protonvpn-app[11557]: 2024-12-30T21:51:43.097837+00:00 | proton.vpn.session.utils:111 | INFO | API:RESPONSE | '/vpn/v1/loads' Dec 30 22:51:43 apollo protonvpn-app[11557]: 2024-12-30T21:51:43.309372+00:00 | proton.vpn.core.refresher.server_list_refresher:76 | INFO | Next server list refresh scheduled i> Dec 30 22:51:51 apollo systemd[1]: proton-vpn.service: Deactivated successfully.

What I think is the most interesting here is:

dbus.exceptions.DBusException: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.UnknownObject: Unknown object '/org/freedesktop/login1/seat/auto'.

I also use portmaster and it boots at startup by default without any issues on both systems. It would be best, if a setting would have been included to boot at startup. Its a simple script (presumably no bugs are caused).
(I posted this already on another issue, but I figured this requires its own issue due to my issue causing a different bug)

[calexandru2018]

Closing as it is duplicate of #82