[Bug]: Failed to enable unit: Unit salt-master.service does not exist

[davidbernat]

What happened?

New user on Ubuntu 25, and so joining SaltStack after the package support was removed.
Installation now requires using https://raw.githubusercontent.com/saltstack/salt-bootstrap/develop/salt-quick-start.sh

Basic setup procedure.

1. planning to put sls files in the default: /srv/salt/server.sls
2. all resources says these are the UFW firewall rules:

# master
sudo ufw allow 4505/tcp comment "SaltStack publish port"  # Master receives minion connections + publishes commands
sudo ufw allow 4506/tcp comment "SaltStack receive port"  # Master receives minion result connections

# minion 
sudo ufw allow out to any port 4505 comment "SaltStack publish port"  # Connect to master for commands
sudo ufw allow out to any port 4506 comment "SaltStack receive port"  # Connect to master for results

But then initiating the salt service yields an error that the service does not exist.

sudo systemctl enable salt-master
# Failed to enable unit: Unit salt-master.service does not exist

All the search results I have been able to find (e.g. Gemini) incorrect say, more or less, impossible! the service should have been installed when you (incorrectly) installed SaltStack using the package manager apt! All the LLM responses (especially with Context7) instead simply want to create a /etc/systemd/system/salt-master.service service file.

But why should I need to do that on the fly unprotected? The SaltStack repo must have the correct salt-master.service somewhere, and so far I have been unable to find an official version. Please advise. Thank you!

Type of salt install

other (please specify in bug details)

Major version

3007.x

What supported OS are you seeing the problem on? Can select multiple. (If bug appears on an unsupported OS, please open a GitHub Discussion instead)

I am using Ubuntu 25.10.
Please move this to a GitHub Discussion.

salt --versions-report output

Salt Version:
          Salt: 3007.12
 
Python Version:
        Python: 3.10.19 (main, Feb  5 2026, 07:05:38) [GCC 11.2.0]
 
Dependency Versions:
          cffi: 2.0.0
      cherrypy: unknown
  cryptography: 42.0.5
      dateutil: 2.8.2
     docker-py: Not Installed
         gitdb: Not Installed
     gitpython: Not Installed
        Jinja2: 3.1.6
       libgit2: Not Installed
  looseversion: 1.3.0
      M2Crypto: Not Installed
          Mako: Not Installed
       msgpack: 1.0.7
  msgpack-pure: Not Installed
  mysql-python: Not Installed
     packaging: 24.0
     pycparser: 2.21
      pycrypto: Not Installed
  pycryptodome: 3.19.1
        pygit2: Not Installed
  python-gnupg: 0.5.2
        PyYAML: 6.0.1
         PyZMQ: 25.1.2
        relenv: 0.22.3
         smmap: Not Installed
       timelib: 0.3.0
       Tornado: 6.5.4
           ZMQ: 4.3.4
 
Salt Package Information:
  Package Type: onedir
 
System Versions:
          dist: ubuntu 25.10 questing
        locale: utf-8
       machine: x86_64
       release: 6.17.0-14-generic
        system: Linux
       version: Ubuntu 25.10 questing

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