obsidian/wiki/claude-code/lmstudio-llmster-systemd.md

title	aliases	tags	sources	created	updated
LM Studio — llmster Startup Service (systemd)	llmster-systemd lmstudio-startup lmstudio-daemon-linux	lmstudio llmster systemd linux headless local-llm	raw/Setup llmster as a Startup Task on Linux.md	2026-04-30	2026-04-30

LM Studio — llmster Startup Service (systemd)

Configure llmster (LM Studio's headless daemon) to launch automatically at boot, load a model, and start the HTTP API server — all via a systemd unit file.

Install llmster

curl -fsSL https://lmstudio.ai/install.sh | bash
lms --help   # verify

Download a Model

lms get openai/gpt-oss-20b
# note the model path printed — used in service config

Manual Test (before systemd)

lms load openai/gpt-oss-20b
lms server start
curl http://localhost:1234/v1/models   # should return model list
lms server stop

systemd Unit File

Create /etc/systemd/system/lmstudio.service (replace YOUR_USERNAME):

[Unit]
Description=LM Studio Server

[Service]
Type=oneshot
RemainAfterExit=yes
User=YOUR_USERNAME
Environment="HOME=/home/YOUR_USERNAME"
ExecStartPre=/home/YOUR_USERNAME/.lmstudio/bin/lms daemon up
ExecStartPre=/home/YOUR_USERNAME/.lmstudio/bin/lms load openai/gpt-oss-20b --yes
ExecStart=/home/YOUR_USERNAME/.lmstudio/bin/lms server start
ExecStop=/home/YOUR_USERNAME/.lmstudio/bin/lms daemon down

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

• Type=oneshot + RemainAfterExit=yes — service is considered "active" after ExecStart exits
• ExecStartPre runs sequentially before ExecStart
• Skip the lms load line to rely on wiki/claude-code/lmstudio-idle-ttl-auto-evict instead

Enable and Start

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable lmstudio.service
sudo systemctl start lmstudio.service

Verify

systemctl status lmstudio
curl http://localhost:1234/v1/models

Service Management

sudo systemctl stop lmstudio       # stop
sudo systemctl restart lmstudio    # restart
sudo systemctl disable lmstudio    # remove from boot

Key Takeaways

• Use lms daemon up in ExecStartPre — the daemon must be running before lms load or lms server start
• Binary path is ~/.lmstudio/bin/lms — use the absolute path in the unit file (systemd has a minimal $PATH)
• Type=oneshot + RemainAfterExit=yes keeps the service "active" so ExecStop runs on shutdown
• Omit the lms load step and use wiki/claude-code/lmstudio-idle-ttl-auto-evict to avoid pinning a model at boot
• API is served on http://localhost:1234 — see wiki/claude-code/lmstudio-headless-service for non-systemd options and wiki/claude-code/lmstudio-serve-on-network to expose to other devices

Sources

• LM Studio Headless llmster Docs