On http://docs.basho.com/riak/kv/2.2.3/using/performance/open-files-limit/#debian-ubuntu following the instructions on a fresh desktop install of ubuntu 17x has no effect on the output of `ulimit -n` when logging into the desktop/gui environment. Following the instructions here https://superuser.com/questions/1200539/cannot-increase-open-file-limit-past-4096-ubuntu worked for me. That is setting `DefaultLimitNOFILE` in both `user.conf` and `system.conf` under `/etc/systemd` I'm pretty ignorant about linux etc, so there maybe a more correct way, but this is what it took for my desktop install to work.