# \[SOLVED\] Gitea Service is not starting **URL:** \ **Category:** Install/Maintain/Configure\ **Created:** [April 24, 2019, 9:37am UTC](https://forum.gitea.com/t/solved-gitea-service-is-not-starting/1111 "2019-04-24T09:37:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Shoplifter](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.gitea.com/shoplifter/32/537_2.png) [@Shoplifter](https://forum.gitea.com/u/Shoplifter)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2019, 9:37am UTC](https://forum.gitea.com/t/solved-gitea-service-is-not-starting/1111/1 "2019-04-24T09:37:21Z")
Hi, I am new to gitea and not a Linux expert. I managed to install gitea on Ubuntu 18.04 with Apache more or less follwing [this tutorial](https://mindefrag.net/2018/07/how-to-install-and-configure-gitea-a-self-hosted-github-like-service/) When I start gitea with `sudo /usr/local/bin/gitea web -c /opt/gitea/app.ini`, then the page for setting up configuration at my server is available. But when I try to do this via a service it does not work. `sudo service gitea start` and `sudo service gitea status` give me ```auto ● gitea.service - Gitea (Git with a cup of tea) Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/gitea.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled) Active: activating (auto-restart) (Result: exit-code) since Wed 2019-04-24 11:27:17 CEST; 1s ago Process: 32532 ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/gitea web -c /opt/gitea/app.ini (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE) Main PID: 32532 (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE) ``` and in the browser I see a 503 Service unavailable. more details gives me `journalctl -b 0 -u gitea`: ```auto Apr 19 13:20:30 Ubuntu-1804-bionic-64-minimal systemd[1]: Started Gitea (Git with a cup of tea). Apr 19 13:20:30 Ubuntu-1804-bionic-64-minimal gitea[22399]: panic: Git version missing: exec: "git": executable file not found in $PATH Apr 19 13:20:30 Ubuntu-1804-bionic-64-minimal gitea[22399]: goroutine 1 [running]: Apr 19 13:20:30 Ubuntu-1804-bionic-64-minimal gitea[22399]: code.gitea.io/gitea/vendor/code.gitea.io/git.init.0() Apr 19 13:20:30 Ubuntu-1804-bionic-64-minimal gitea[22399]: /go/src/code.gitea.io/gitea/vendor/code.gitea.io/git/git.go:76 +0x1a3 Apr 19 13:20:30 Ubuntu-1804-bionic-64-minimal systemd[1]: gitea.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=2/INVALIDARGUMENT Apr 19 13:20:30 Ubuntu-1804-bionic-64-minimal systemd[1]: gitea.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'. Apr 19 13:20:32 Ubuntu-1804-bionic-64-minimal systemd[1]: gitea.service: Service hold-off time over, scheduling restart. Apr 19 13:20:32 Ubuntu-1804-bionic-64-minimal systemd[1]: gitea.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 1. Apr 19 13:20:32 Ubuntu-1804-bionic-64-minimal systemd[1]: Stopped Gitea (Git with a cup of tea). ``` So why is git executable not found? `sudo git --version` returns `git version 2.17.1` I really googled a lot to find out but here I’m stuck. My Service configuration looks like this ```auto [Unit] Description=Gitea (Git with a cup of tea) After=syslog.target After=network.target After=mysqld.service #After=postgresql.service #After=memcached.service #After=redis.service [Service] # Modify these two values and uncomment them if you have # repos with lots of files and get an HTTP error 500 because # of that ### #LimitMEMLOCK=infinity #LimitNOFILE=65535 RestartSec=2s Type=simple User=git Group=git WorkingDirectory=/opt/gitea/ ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/gitea web -c /opt/gitea/app.ini Restart=always Environment=USER=git HOME=/home/git GITEA_WORK_DIR=/opt/gitea # If you want to bind Gitea to a port below 1024 uncomment # the two values below ### #CapabilityBoundingSet=CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICE #AmbientCapabilities=CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICE [Install] WantedBy=multi-user.target ``` About the PATH: `which git` returns `/usr/bin/git` and `sudo env | grep ^PATH` returns `PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/snap/bin` ---
**Author:** ![chk](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.gitea.com/chk/32/476_2.png) [@chk](https://forum.gitea.com/u/chk)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2019, 5:59pm UTC](https://forum.gitea.com/t/solved-gitea-service-is-not-starting/1111/2 "2019-04-25T17:59:12Z")
Odd. Have you tried explicitly setting the path inside the unit file? > [@Shoplifter](#): > > ```auto > Environment= ... PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/snap/bin > > ``` If it still doesn’t work, you should wrap the `ExecStart` command with a shell, echo PATH to stdout before gitea runs, and then inspect systemd logs. ---
**Author:** ![Shoplifter](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.gitea.com/shoplifter/32/537_2.png) [@Shoplifter](https://forum.gitea.com/u/Shoplifter)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2019, 10:49am UTC](https://forum.gitea.com/t/solved-gitea-service-is-not-starting/1111/3 "2019-04-28T10:49:54Z")
Thanks for your answer. I tried the solution you provided and it worked. The I removed it again (since it really should be unnecessary) and it still worked. No idea what I did wrong in the first place, but thanks a lot anyways. I am still running into problems with letsencrypt resp. reverse proxy config though, but I think better start a [new thread](https://forum.gitea.com/t/apache-proxy-error-502/1120) for that one. ---
**Author:** ![CoolGoose](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.gitea.com/coolgoose/32/4840_2.png) [@CoolGoose](https://forum.gitea.com/u/CoolGoose)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2019, 10:07am UTC](https://forum.gitea.com/t/solved-gitea-service-is-not-starting/1111/4 "2019-06-17T10:07:40Z")
If anybody else hits this thread, I had a similar issue, but unfortunately I wasn’t that fortunate to see that gitea wasn’t seeing git. My `journalctl -b 0 -u gitea` only said ```auto Jun 17 13:01:42 gitea.example.org systemd[1]: Started Gitea gitlabselfhost instance. Jun 17 13:01:42 gitea.example.org systemd[1]: giteaselfhost.service: main process exited, code=exited, status=2/INVALIDARGUMENT Jun 17 13:01:42 gitea.example.org systemd[1]: Unit giteaselfhost.service entered failed state. Jun 17 13:01:42 gitea.example.org systemd[1]: giteaselfhost.service failed. ``` The problem was that my ‘git’ is in a custom path, so the adding the path in the service worked for me. I suspect that maybe the person above forgot to daemon-reload systemd so that’s why it’s still working ? ---
**Author:** ![lunny](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.gitea.com/lunny/32/4701_2.png) [@lunny](https://forum.gitea.com/u/lunny)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2026, 6:02pm UTC](https://forum.gitea.com/t/solved-gitea-service-is-not-starting/1111/5 "2026-05-11T18:02:15Z")