Setup llmster as a Startup Task on Linux

llmster, LM Studio's headless daemon, can be configured to run on startup. This guide covers setting up llmster to launch, load a model, and start an HTTP server automatically using systemctl on Linux.

Info

This guide is for Linux systems without a graphical interface. For machines with a GUI, you can configure LM Studio to run as a service on login instead.

Install the Daemon

Run the following command to install llmster:

curl -fsSL https://lmstudio.ai/install.sh | bash

Verify the installation:

lms --help

Download a Model

Download a model to use with the server:

lms get openai/gpt-oss-20b

The output will show the model path. You'll need this for the systemd configuration.

Manual Test

Before configuring systemd, verify everything works manually.

Load the model:

lms load openai/gpt-oss-20b

Start the server:

lms server start

Verify the API is responding:

curl http://localhost:1234/v1/models

Stop the server when done testing:

lms server stop

Create Systemd Service

Create /etc/systemd/system/lmstudio.service. Replace YOUR_USERNAME with 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

This unit automatically loads the openai/gpt-oss-20b model on startup. Alternatively, you can avoid loading a specific model on startup and instead rely on Just-In-Time (JIT) loading and Eviction in the server.

Enable and Start the Service

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

Verify

Check the service status:

systemctl status lmstudio

Test the API:

curl http://localhost:1234/v1/models

Service Management

# Stop the service
sudo systemctl stop lmstudio

# Restart the service
sudo systemctl restart lmstudio

# Disable auto-start
sudo systemctl disable lmstudio

Community

Chat with other LM Studio developers, discuss LLMs, hardware, and more on the LM Studio Discord server.

Please report bugs and issues in the lmstudio-bug-tracker GitHub repository.