systemctl is broken if you don't boot with systemd

Hello,
Have you installed systemd?
Thanks

You actually need to boot with systemd for systemctl to work. But NB that in Ubuntu 14.10 this isn't officially supported yet, and many stuff is still broken. But you can append "init=/bin/systemd" to the command line to play with it; a normal desktop works very well.

systemd is obviously installed, since the systemctl command is available. They are in the same "systemd" package.

If you have any ideas of how to detect if systemd is actually used, that would be great. Thanks.

If "systemctl" is working, you are running systemd. If "initctl --system list" is working, you are running upstart (the default in Ubuntu 14.10). As I said, you need to boot with "init=/bin/systemd" on the kernel command line to try systemd.

Also effects Haguichi, and presumably any package that calls on /bin/systemctl.
see my Bug report here: https://answers.launchpad.net/haguichi/+question/258759

This happened only after upgrade to 14.10. Martin Pitt, care to write a quick tutorial on how to change the correct boot settings to reflect your change if that fixes it? (I will test if you cannot reproduce this error)

Also, maintainer/admin: This bug is confirmed, I have it too.

Here are some conflicting results:

Output from:
:~$ initctl --systemlist

initctl: invalid option: --systemlist
Try `initctl --help' for more information.
brandon@RomeoMontague:~$ initctl --system list
avahi-daemon start/running, process 897
mountnfs-bootclean.sh start/running
rsyslog start/running, process 697
tty4 start/running, process 1186
udev start/running, process 385
upstart-udev-bridge start/running, process 376
whoopsie start/running, process 1281
nmbd start/running, process 2045
winbind start/running, process 2063
avahi-cups-reload stop/waiting
mountall-net stop/waiting
passwd stop/waiting
rc stop/waiting
startpar-bridge stop/waiting
ureadahead-other stop/waiting
apport start/running
smbd start/running, process 705
tty5 start/running, process 1190
console-setup stop/waiting
gpu-manager stop/waiting
hwclock-save stop/waiting
irqbalance stop/waiting
plymouth-log stop/waiting
modemmanager start/running, process 865
mountall.sh start/running
failsafe stop/waiting
procps-instance stop/waiting
rfkill-store stop/waiting
alsa-utils start/running
atd start/running, process 1236
dbus start/running, process 776
resolvconf start/running
failsafe-x stop/waiting
mounted-var stop/waiting
plymouth-shutdown stop/waiting
plymouth stop/waiting
udev-fallback-graphics stop/waiting
usb-modeswitch-upstart stop/waiting
checkroot.sh start/running
network-manager start/running, process 905
control-alt-delete stop/waiting
hwclock stop/waiting
mounted-proc stop/waiting
cups-browsed start/running, process 1282
alsa-store stop/waiting
setvtrgb stop/waiting
shutdown stop/waiting
cron start/running, process 1265
lightdm start/running, process 2202
mountkernfs.sh start/running
alsa-restore stop/waiting
mountall stop/waiting
mounted-debugfs stop/waiting
binfmt-support start/running
hostname.sh start/running
palm-novacomd start/running, process 2399
console stop/waiting
mounted-run stop/waiting
xboxdrv stop/waiting
acpid start/running, process 1263
bluetooth start/running, process 880
checkfs.sh start/running
checkroot-bootclean.sh start/running
mountnfs.sh start/running
plymouth-stop start/running
ufw start/running
kmod stop/waiting
rcS stop/waiting
reload-smbd stop/waiting
wait-for-state stop/waiting
bootmisc.sh start/running
flush-early-job-log stop/waiting
friendly-recovery stop/waiting
rc-sysinit stop/waiting
samba-ad-dc stop/waiting
cups start/running, process 3531
upstart-socket-bridge start/running, process 708
apparmor stop/waiting
cgproxy stop/waiting
pulseaudio stop/waiting
anacron start/running, process 1232
mountdevsubfs.sh start/running
tty2 start/running, process 1199
upstart-file-bridge start/running, process 665
cryptdisks start/running
udevtrigger stop/waiting
mtab.sh start/running
tty3 start/running, process 1200
udev-finish start/running
container-detect stop/waiting
mounted-dev stop/waiting
cgmanager start/running, process 303
hwclock.sh start/running
alsa-state stop/waiting
cryptdisks-udev stop/waiting
hostname stop/waiting
mountall-reboot stop/waiting
network-interface (lo) start/running
network-interface (eth0) start/running
network-interface (wlan0) start/running
tty1 start/running, process 2400
mountall-shell stop/waiting
mounted-tmp stop/...

Also, systemd is not maintained in launchpad, but in bugzilla. If this is an error in systemd and it is required for 'some reason', then they may have to be notified their as well? I dont know if upstart is the real problem here, and the package being reported for this bug might need to be changed to reflect that.

Affects multiple users.

Also, there is no package libdbus or dbus-daemon. So even if systemd was the intent, how would it ever communicate?

It was suggested to me that I could use the following workaround to start up programs affected by this bug by using the following command:
:~#sudo service [PackageName] start

I tested this on an affect program Haguichi and it worked.

For 15.04 we plan to change to systemd by default, at which point this will work. For 14.10 making systemctl "invisible" is not an important enough issue to warrant a stable release update; plus, some people actually want to boot 14.10 with systemd for experimentation (note that this is not officially supported, and some things are known not to work).

Can systemd be safely uninstalled in the mean time for users not yet testing this function?

You can't, as we do use systemd-logind and other parts from the systemd package.