Comment 12 for bug 1385630

> 1) Why doesn't my setup boot at all, if I remove the kernel line init=/lib/systemd/systemd ?

That's a good question, if you have systemd-sysv installed it should work without it (that's how I boot my system).

$ ls -l /sbin/init
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 20 Nov 3 07:41 /sbin/init -> /lib/systemd/systemd

Does that look any different for you?

> 2) Why doesn't my setup boot at all, if I use /bin/systemd in the kernel line instead?

That should also work indeed, I do that all the time. This was fixed a while ago in utopic: https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/initramfs-tools/0.103ubuntu8. What's your version of initramfs-tools? Also, did you perhaps somehow damage your initramfs? Can you please attach your /boot/grub/grub.cfg ?