Starting a service from /etc/event.d works, but not from /etc/init

Question

I'm trying to launch an upstart service on Ubuntu 8.04 from /etc/init/, but I always get start: Unknown job: job. When I try to launch this script from /etc/event.d/ it works fine. Why would this be and how would I fix it?

Answer 1

Ubuntu 8.04 included an older version of Upstart, which stored its scripts under /etc/event.d rather than /etc/init like current versions do.

While upgrading Upstart would make it look in the new location, I would strongly recommend against doing that unless you are upgrading the entire system (e.g. to the current LTS release: 10.04). Other packages designed for 8.04 that include Upstart scripts will expect that the /etc/event.d location is being used.

If you are stuck on 8.04, it is probably better to work with the version it ships with.