[Virtual-pkg-base-maintainers] Bug#782327: "/etc/inittab" seems to be disabled due to the switch to systemd, but does not make this clear

[George Bateman]

Package: base
Version: 8
Severity: minor

I installed Debian recently using the stable DVD, not installing the
GUI desktop option. I then set APT to use Testing, ran apt-get update,
dist-upgrade, and installed cinnamon. I noticed than, although logging
in at the command-line and typing startx allowed me to log in to the
GUI, adding "sx:45:once:/bin/su -c /usr/bin/startx -l bateman" to
/etc/inittab and setting the run-level to 5 with "id:5:initdefault:"
did not automatically start the GUI at boot.

I asked at http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/194625/startx-does-not-run-in-etc-inittab
for advice, and I was first advised that the reason this didn't work
was because I was not logged in at the console, and therefore did not
have permission to run startx. I then asked why nothing I did to
/etc/inittab seemed to have any effect, since I'd tried changes like
setting the tty1 command to

1:2345:respawn:/sbin/getty -a bateman 38400 tty1

and commenting out entirely

3:2345:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty3

and didn't notice anything happening. I was told that it was because
Jessie uses systemd, not SysV init, and therefore "some or all of
inittab may not be used". If this is correct, please could a note be
added at the top of /etc/inittab, indicating that it is [partially]
disabled?

/etc/os-release gives
PRETTY_NAME="Debian GNU/Linux 8 (jessie)"
NAME="Debian GNU/Linux"
VERSION_ID="8"
VERSION="8 (jessie)"
ID=debian
HOME_URL="http://www.debian.org/"
SUPPORT_URL="http://www.debian.org/support/"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.debian.org/"