Setting Syncthing on a Headless System

Setting Up SyncThing on a Headless Debian Rasp Pi

Install SyncThing

1. Update the system

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

2. Install apt-transport-https if it is not already installed

sudo apt install apt-transport-https

3. Install SyncThing’s GPG Keys

curl -s https://syncthing.net/release-key.txt | gpg --dearmor | sudo tee /usr/share/keyrings/syncthing-archive-keyring.gpg >/dev/null

4. Add the SyncThing’s repo to the source list

echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/syncthing-archive-keyring.gpg] https://apt.syncthing.net/ syncthing stable" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/syncthing.list

5. Update Sources List

sudo apt update

6. Install the SyncThing package

sudo apt install syncthing

Allow External Connections to the Web Client

1. Run SyncThing to generate the config files

syncthing

2. Find where the config file is located

syncthing -paths

3. Modify the config file Change this line from <address>127.0.0.1:8384</address> to <address>0.0.0.0:8384</address>. This will allow connections from any address, if you want to restrict this to only allow connections from with the same subnet as the pi change the address to the pi’s.

Config SyncThing as a Service

1. Add the below content to the file /lib/systemd/system/syncthing.service
   • NOTE: CHANGE THE USER TO THE USER YOU WANT SYNCTHING TO RUN AS

[Unit] 
Description=Syncthing - Open Source Continuous File Synchronization 
Documentation=man:syncthing(1) 
After=network.target 

[Service] 
User=pi 
ExecStart=/usr/bin/syncthing -no-browser -no-restart -logflags=0 
Restart=on-failure 
RestartSec=5 
SuccessExitStatus=3 4 
RestartForceExitStatus=3 4 

# Hardening 
ProtectSystem=full 
PrivateTmp=true 
SystemCallArchitectures=native 
MemoryDenyWriteExecute=true 
NoNewPrivileges=true 

[Install] 
WantedBy=multi-user.target

2. Allow SyncThing to start at boot

sudo systemctl enable syncthing

3. Start SyncThing

sudo systemctl start syncthing

4. Access the web client at https://<pie's ip>:8384

References

1. https://pimylifeup.com/raspberry-pi-syncthing/
2. https://forum.syncthing.net/t/help-finding-config-file-ubuntu-server/12465