This issue still seems to be a problem in 18.04. If found a solution: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1040539/how-do-i-get-ufw-to-start-on-boot/1040584
I edited /lib/systemd/system/ufw.service as follows: $ diff -u ufw.service.orig ufw.service --- ufw.service.orig 2018-05-26 13:45:48.696356561 +0100 +++ ufw.service 2018-05-26 14:17:22.030681670 +0100 @@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ Description=Uncomplicated firewall Documentation=man:ufw(8) DefaultDependencies=no -Before=network.target +After=network-pre.target [Service] Type=oneshot According to this page https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/NetworkTarget/ the network-pre.target has this purpose: "It's primary purpose is for usage with firewall services that want to establish a firewall before any network interface is up" Making the above change solves the problem so that ufw does seem to start up after boot. Is it a bug that ufw.service is not setup this way to start with? -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Touch seeded packages, which is subscribed to ufw in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1726856 Title: ufw does not start automatically at boot Status in ufw package in Ubuntu: New Bug description: Whenever I boot into 17.10 ufw is always inactive, even though /etc/ufw/ufw.conf has this: # Set to yes to start on boot. If setting this remotely, be sure to add a rule # to allow your remote connection before starting ufw. Eg: 'ufw allow 22/tcp' ENABLED=yes ProblemType: Bug DistroRelease: Ubuntu 17.10 Package: ufw 0.35-5 ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.13.0-16.19-generic 4.13.4 Uname: Linux 4.13.0-16-generic x86_64 ApportVersion: 2.20.7-0ubuntu3 Architecture: amd64 CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME Date: Tue Oct 24 13:56:40 2017 InstallationDate: Installed on 2015-04-01 (936 days ago) InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Release amd64 (20140722.2) PackageArchitecture: all SourcePackage: ufw UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to artful on 2017-10-24 (0 days ago) mtime.conffile..etc.default.ufw: 2015-06-17T22:01:02.089170 To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ufw/+bug/1726856/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~touch-packages Post to : touch-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~touch-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp