Sorry, turns out the /etc/systemd/system service file needs to be a symlink to trigger the bug. This will do it:
su - cat <<EOF > /crashsystemd@.service [Unit] Description=Template for instance %i [Service] ExecStart=/bin/true EOF cd /etc/systemd/system ln -s /crashsystemd@.service crashsystemd.service systemctl daemon-reload systemctl start crashsystemd After the 'systemctl start crashsystemd' my terminal says: Failed to start crashsystemd.service: Connection reset by peer See system logs and 'systemctl status crashsystemd.service' for details. and in the systemd logs I see: Jul 17 23:20:33 jturner-desktop systemd[1]: Assertion 'u->instance' failed at src/core/load-fragment.c:4798, function unit_load_fragment(). Aborting. Things are pretty broken now. 'systemctl' and 'reboot' commands won't work. Don't forget to delete the /etc/systemd/system/crashsystemd.service symlink before rebooting. -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1887744 Title: systemd dumps core on starting service: Assertion 'u->instance' failed at src/core/load-fragment.c:4798 To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/systemd/+bug/1887744/+subscriptions -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs