You should make sure you have: - systemd-sysvcompat installed properly Another way which I'm using (since I consider that package silly) is this: - add init=/usr/lib/systemd/systemd to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX in /etc/default/grub and run grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg -- or the according action using your bootloader. Your system basically doesn't know what to run as pid 1. cheers! mar77i