Subject: bug#352: sysvinit-core: Migrating from Debian leaves empty inittab

From: Kevin Ross <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 20 Sep 2019 23:08:15 +0000

Package: sysvinit-core
Version: 2.88dsf-59.9+devuan2
Severity: normal

Dear Maintainer,

After performing the migration as outlined at

https://devuan.org/os/documentation/dev1fanboy/migrate-to-ascii

the system was left in a pretty unusable state. After much poking
around, it seems it left /etc/inittab with a completely empty file. I
found a sample in /usr/share/sysvinit-core/inittab, which I copied to
/etc/inittab, rebooted, and now everything is good.

Either the sysvinit-core installation should intall a working inittab
(with the usual prompting about whether to overwrite an existing config
file), or at the very least, the instructions at the link above should
be modified to tell the user to copy the inittab manually.

-- System Information:
Distributor ID:	Devuan
Description:	Devuan GNU/Linux 2.0 (ascii)
Release:	2.0
Codename:	ascii

Architecture: x86_64

Kernel: Linux 3.16.0 (SMP w/4 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=C (charmap=ANSI_X3.4-1968)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: sysvinit (via /sbin/init)

Versions of packages sysvinit-core depends on:
ii  debconf [debconf-2.0]  1.5.61
ii  debianutils            4.8.1.1
ii  initscripts            2.88dsf-59.9+devuan2
ii  libc6                  2.24-11+deb9u4
ii  libselinux1            2.6-3+b3
ii  libsepol1              2.6-2
ii  sysv-rc                2.88dsf-59.9+devuan2
ii  sysvinit-utils         2.88dsf-59.9+devuan2

sysvinit-core recommends no packages.

Versions of packages sysvinit-core suggests:
pn  bootlogd  <none>

-- debconf information:
  sysvinit/hurd-fix-inittab:

---

From: Arne Wichmann <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2025 19:22:45 +0200

tags 352 + moreinfo
quit

Is this problem still current? The last times I migrated from Debian to
Devuan it did not happen to me.

cu

YPl
-- 
[...] If you don't want to be restricted, don't agree to it. If you are
coerced, comply as much as you must to protect yourself, just don't support
it. Noone can free you but yourself. (crag, on Debian Planet)
Y Plentyn ([email-masked])