I am unable to freely create & enable user unit files and I'm not sure why
$ systemctl edit --user --force --full test.service Successfully installed edited file '/home/me/.config/systemd/user/test.service'. $ cat /home/me/.config/systemd/user/test.service [Unit] Description=Test user unit files [Service] ExecStart=/bin/sh -c true [Install] WantedBy=default.target $ systemd-analyze verify /home/me/.config/systemd/user/test.service $ systemctl --user daemon-reload $ systemctl --user enable test.service Failed to enable unit: Unit file test.service does not exist. $ systemctl --user enable /home/me/.config/systemd/user/test.service Failed to enable unit: Access denied $ systemd-analyze --user unit-paths /home/me/.config/systemd/user.control /run/user/60065/systemd/user.control /run/user/60065/systemd/transient /run/user/60065/systemd/generator.early /home/me/.config/systemd/user /etc/xdg/systemd/user /etc/systemd/user /run/user/60065/systemd/user /run/systemd/user /run/user/60065/systemd/generator /home/me/.local/share/systemd/user /usr/local/share/systemd/user /usr/share/systemd/user /usr/local/lib/systemd/user /usr/lib/systemd/user /run/user/60065/systemd/generator.late $ ls -la /home/me/.config/systemd/user total 12 drwxr-xr-x 2 me me 4096 Jun 13 09:42 . drwxr-xr-x 3 me me 4096 Jun 13 09:42 .. -rw-r--r-- 1 me me 112 Jun 13 09:42 test.service $ cat /etc/profile.d/xdg-user-dirs.sh #!/bin/sh # org.freedesktop.xdg XDG_CONFIG_HOME=$HOME/.config XDG_CACHE_HOME=$HOME/.cache XDG_DATA_HOME=/$HOME/.local/share XDG_STATE_HOME=$HOME/.local/state I would have thought systemctl edit --user sorts out those pesky permissions issues. All available information on troubleshooting this issue that I have been able to gather only pertains to SELinux machines, which doesn't apply here. ...I missed a step, didn't I? --D