Running on Startup (systemd)

To have mtrack start when the system starts, first create a dedicated system user for the service:

$ sudo useradd --system --no-create-home --shell /usr/sbin/nologin mtrack
$ sudo usermod -aG audio mtrack

The audio group grants access to ALSA sound cards and MIDI devices. If your DMX USB adapter requires a specific group (e.g. plugdev or dialout), add that as well:

$ sudo usermod -aG plugdev mtrack

Next, generate and install the systemd service file:

$ sudo mtrack systemd > /etc/systemd/system/mtrack.service

The service expects that mtrack is available at the location /usr/local/bin/mtrack. It also expects you to define your project directory in /etc/default/mtrack. This file should contain one variable: MTRACK_PATH:

# The project directory for mtrack (contains songs, config, playlists, lighting).
MTRACK_PATH=/mnt/storage

Make sure the mtrack user has read and write access to the project directory so the web UI can manage configuration, songs, playlists, and lighting files:

$ sudo chown -R mtrack:mtrack /mnt/storage

Once that’s defined, you can start it with:

$ sudo systemctl daemon-reload
$ sudo systemctl enable mtrack
$ sudo systemctl start mtrack

It will now be running and will restart when you reboot your machine. You’ll be able to view the logs for mtrack by running:

$ journalctl -u mtrack