# Enabling watchdog causes systemd to hang at reboot on rPi5
**URL:** https://dietpi.com/forum/t/enabling-watchdog-causes-systemd-to-hang-at-reboot-on-rpi5/23777
**Category:** Troubleshooting
**Tags:** services, rpi-5
**Created:** [7 July 2025 21:16 UTC](https://dietpi.com/forum/t/enabling-watchdog-causes-systemd-to-hang-at-reboot-on-rpi5/23777 "2025-07-07T21:16:35Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@marcmerlin](https://dietpi.com/forum/u/marcmerlin)
#### Post date: [7 July 2025 21:16 UTC](https://dietpi.com/forum/t/enabling-watchdog-causes-systemd-to-hang-at-reboot-on-rpi5/23777/1 "2025-07-07T21:16:35Z")
G\_DIETPI\_VERSION\_CORE=9
G\_DIETPI\_VERSION\_SUB=12
G\_DIETPI\_VERSION\_RC=1
G\_GITBRANCH=‘master’
G\_GITOWNER=‘MichaIng’
Linux aragorn 6.12.25+rpt-rpi-2712 #1 SMP PREEMPT Debian 1:6.12.25-1+rpt1 (2025-04-30) aarch64 GNU/Linux
arm64
perplexed about this, I installed watchdog on dietpi, I even tried this
```auto
aragorn:~# dpkg --status watchdog
Package: watchdog
Version: 5.16-2~rpt2
(...)
aragorn:~# cat /etc/systemd/system/watchdog.service.d/override.conf
[Unit]
Conflicts=reboot.target shutdown.target
```
reboot shows this on serial
```auto
[OK] Removed slice system-modpr…lice - Slice /system/modprobe.
[OK] Stopped target bluetooth.target - Bluetooth Support.
[OK] Stopped target graphical.target - Graphical Interface.
[OK] Stopped target rpcbind.target - RPC Port Mapper.
[OK] Stopped target timers.target - Timer Units.
[OK] Stopped dpkg-db-backup.tim… Daily dpkg database backup timer.
[OK] Stopped fstrim.timer - Discard unused blocks once a week.
[OK] Stopped logrotate.timer - Daily rotation of log files.
[OK] Stopped systemd-tmpfiles-c… Cleanup of Temporary Directories.
[OK] Stopped target time-set.target - System Time Set.
[OK] Closed systemd-rfkill.sock…l Switch Status /dev/rfkill Watch.
Unmounting mnt-btrfs_boot.mount - /mnt/btrfs_boot...
Unmounting mnt-firmware2.mount - /mnt/firmware2...
Unmounting mnt-sdcard.mount - /mnt/sdcard...
Unmounting mnt-sdcard_boot.mount - /mnt/sdcard_boot...
Starting dietpi-kill_ssh.s…m - DietPi-Kill_SSH on shutdown...
Stopping nfs-blkmap.servic…NFS block layout mapping daemon...
Stopping nfs-server.service - NFS server and services...
Stopping systemd-random-se…ice - Load/Save Random Seed...
Stopping watchdog.service - watchdog daemon... <<<<<<<< stopped hereh
[OK] Stopped nfs-blkmap.service… pNFS block layout mapping daemon.
[OK] Stopped ssh.service - OpenBSD Secure Shell server.
[OK] Unmounted mnt-btrfs_boot.mount - /mnt/btrfs_boot.
[OK] Unmounted mnt-firmware2.mount - /mnt/firmware2.
[OK] Unmounted mnt-sdcard.mount - /mnt/sdcard
```
but then it hangs, no reboot unless I use sysrq+b
and if I just do
reboot is aliased to `/etc/init.d/watchdog stop; \reboot’
and then reboot works fine, 100%
Any idea what’s going on?
---
### Author:  [@system](https://dietpi.com/forum/u/system)
#### Post date: [2 January 2026 09:16 UTC](https://dietpi.com/forum/t/enabling-watchdog-causes-systemd-to-hang-at-reboot-on-rpi5/23777/2 "2026-01-02T09:16:52Z")
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