If you want to keep using networkd, you might want to consider if multiple interfaces are causing the wait. NM doesn’t care, but networkd gives more granular options for dependencies. If you have wired and wireless and only one in use the systemd-networkd-wait-online.service waits for a timeout period. You can find lots of info on it related to boot delays with that service.

Try the --any switch on the systemd-networkd-wait-online.service launch configuration. This will tell the wait-online service that any single routable interface is enough, you don’t need them all.

Run:

sudo systemctl edit systemd-networkd-wait-online.service

That adds the override.conf for the service. Add these lines:

[Service]
ExecStart=
ExecStart=/usr/lib/systemd/systemd-networkd-wait-online --any

The other possibility is if you have virtual .netdev devices configured (VPN, bridging, etc) and some of them are not essential for the machine to be online, you can set RequiredForOnline=no on the ones that aren’t essential.

It’s not bad to get running, and the alerting is really flexible. You can add Nagios and syslog alerts easily too.

Using it here. Love the flexibility and features.

I’m running NUT on the host os - no container. If that’s an option for you it will probably be much more reliable.

Huh. Losing USB access?

It’s not very exciting, but: Network UPS Tools (NUT).

Keep everything in good shape in the event of a power outage.

Here’s my messy-cabled 9u rack.

It has:

• Fiber gateway out of view on top of the rack.
• Switch, which also powers 2 Ruckus APs and 2 other switches.
• Mikrotik RB5009 router.
• Raspberry Pi x3 all running Debian Bookworm. I have too many pis right now, running Home Assistant, LibreNMS, Log collection, and a read-only NUT server that orchestrates shutdowns and startups on power loss. I need to consolidate these.
• 1L PCs. One is on Debian serving media and files. The other is a test server where I’m trying out Immich on openSUSE. I’m considering moving to that and rootless podman for services. To that end I have another of these 1L boxes on my desk trying other options (MicroOS, Fedora IoT, maybe others).
• HDs. These are backup drives for the 1L server. I keep them powered off except when needed.
• UPS and a managed, switched PDU.

Everything is set up for low energy consumption (~90w), remote admin, and recovery from power loss.