Fix "system Has Not Been Booted With Systemd As Init System (pid 1). Can't Operate" Error

Last Updated on April 7, 2022 by itsubuntu

How To Fix “system has not been booted with systemd as init system (pid 1). can’t operate” Error

First, let’s have a look at the source of the error. You will get the System has not been booted with systemd as init system (PID 1). Can’t operate error when you run the command sudo systemctl start in your command.

If the above statement is true then we guess you are using Ubuntu inside Windows using WSL and your Linux system is not using systemd.

Fix “system has not been booted with systemd as init system (pid 1). can’t operate” Error

Ubuntu inside Windows using WSL. uses SysV instead of systemd. Now, run the following command to PID 1 process name.

ps -p 1 -o comm=

One of the best solutions for the error system that has not been booted with systemd as init system (pid 1) is to use the alternate command of a system that does the same job. As your system is not using systemd, You can run the equivalent sysvinit command instead of systemd. You can find the list of alternative command to systemd command

sysvinit Command	systemd Command
systemctl start example	service example start
systemctl stop example	service example stop
systemctl restart example	service example restart
systemctl reload example	service example reload
systemctl condrestart example	service example condrestart
systemctl status example	service example status
systemctl enable example	chkconfig example on
systemctl disable example	chkconfig example off
systemctl is-enabled example	chkconfig example –list
systemctl list-unit-files –type=service	chkconfig
systemctl daemon-reload	chkconfig example –add

For another error

Docker System has not been booted with systemd as init system

Try to use: sudo /etc/init.d/docker start instead of systemd.

Let us know if we are able to solve your issue. if you have any alternative solution for this problem then please let us know. We would love to update our blog post.