If you miss the old /etc/rc.local from the SysV days – it still works on modern systemd systems. You just need to enable it manually.

Create the systemd service unit

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/rc-local.service

Paste this:

[Unit]
Description=/etc/rc.local
ConditionPathExists=/etc/rc.local

[Service]
Type=forking
ExecStart=/etc/rc.local start
TimeoutSec=0
StandardOutput=tty
RemainAfterExit=yes
SysVStartPriority=99

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Create rc.local

sudo nano /etc/rc.local

Paste this:

#!/bin/sh -e
#
# rc.local
#
# This script is executed at the end of each multiuser runlevel.
# Make sure that the script will "exit 0" on success or any other
# value on error.
#
# In order to enable or disable this script just change the execution
# bits.
#
# By default this script does nothing.

exit 0

Enable and test

sudo chmod +x /etc/rc.local
sudo systemctl enable rc-local
sudo systemctl start rc-local.service
sudo systemctl status rc-local.service

Notes

  • Any commands placed before exit 0 will run at the end of every multiuser boot. Useful for old habits, kernel tweaks, or hardware init that doesn’t have a proper systemd service yet.
  • This works on Debian 13 Trixie. Also works on Ubuntu 18.04+, RHEL 7+, and most modern distros.