As an example, we will investigate an error with systemd-modules-load service:

Lets find the systemd services which fail to start at boot time:

$ systemctl --state=failed systemd-modules-load.service loaded failed failed Load Kernel Modules

or

$ systemctl --failed systemd-modules-load.service loaded failed failed Load Kernel Modules

Ok, we found a problem with systemd-modules-load service. We want to know more:

$ systemctl status systemd-modules-load systemd-modules-load.service - Load Kernel Modules Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/systemd-modules-load.service; static) Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since So 2013-08-25 11:48:13 CEST; 32s ago Docs: man:systemd-modules-load.service(8). man:modules-load.d(5) Process: 15630 ExecStart=/usr/lib/systemd/systemd-modules-load (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)

If the Process ID is not listed, just restart the failed service with systemctl restart systemd-modules-load

Now we have the process id (PID) to investigate this error in depth. Enter the following command with the current Process ID (here: 15630):

$ journalctl _PID=15630 -- Logs begin at Sa 2013-05-25 10:31:12 CEST, end at So 2013-08-25 11:51:17 CEST. -- Aug 25 11:48:13 mypc systemd-modules-load[15630]: Failed to find module 'blacklist usblp' Aug 25 11:48:13 mypc systemd-modules-load[15630]: Failed to find module 'install usblp /bin/false'

We see that some of the kernel module configs have wrong settings. Therefore we have a look at these settings in /etc/modules-load.d/:

$ ls -Al /etc/modules-load.d/ ... -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 79 1. Dez 2012 blacklist.conf -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1 2. Mär 14:30 encrypt.conf -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3 5. Dez 2012 printing.conf -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6 14. Jul 11:01 realtek.conf -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 65 2. Jun 23:01 virtualbox.conf

The Failed to find module ‘blacklist usblp’ error message might be related to a wrong setting inside of blacklist.conf. Lets deactivate it with inserting a trailing # before each option we found via step 3:

/etc/modules-load.d/blacklist.conf blacklist usblp # install usblp /bin/false

Now, try to start systemd-modules-load:

$ systemctl start systemd-modules-load

If it was successful, this should not prompt anything. If you see any error, go back to step 3 and use the new PID for solving the errors left.

If everything is ok, you can verify that the service was started successfully with:

$ systemctl status systemd-modules-load systemd-modules-load.service - Load Kernel Modules Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/systemd-modules-load.service; static) Active: active (exited) since So 2013-08-25 12:22:31 CEST; 34s ago Docs: man:systemd-modules-load.service(8) man:modules-load.d(5) Process: 19005 ExecStart=/usr/lib/systemd/systemd-modules-load (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS) Aug 25 12:22:31 mypc systemd[1]: Started Load Kernel Modules.

also you can find errors in the journal:

journalctl -p err

source: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Systemd#Troubleshooting