Wallon
Bonjour,
I can confirm I had the same ownership issue, and I’d like to add some details that may help other users (especially beginners like me).
On my system, the problem was not limited to /etc/inittab. I found several files in /etc that were not owned by root.
To detect the issue, I used:
find /etc ! -user root
This returned:
* /etc/inittab
* /etc/default/grub
* /etc/init.d/umountnfs.sh
* /etc/init.d/umountnfs-alternative.sh
These are important system files (boot configuration and init scripts), so incorrect ownership can potentially cause problems.
I fixed everything with:
sudo chown root:root /etc/inittab /etc/default/grub /etc/init.d/umountnfs.sh /etc/init.d/umountnfs-alternative.sh
After that, I verified with:
sudo find /etc ! -user root
No incorrect files were found anymore.
For additional verification, I checked one file with:
stat /etc/inittab
It confirmed:
* owner: root
* group: root
* permissions: 644
Important note for beginners:
The modification date does not change after using chown, but the “Change” time does (metadata update). This is normal.
Conclusion:
* The issue is real
* It may affect multiple files, not just /etc/inittab
* It can be safely fixed with chown
* It’s a good idea to check the whole /etc directory
Thanks to everyone in this thread — it helped me understand and fix the issue.
Best,
Wallon