Subtitled: A meek little post to break a long spell of no posts… There’s a bit of a rabbit trail if this command does nothing: # /etc/init.d/apache2 start # echo $? 0 My problem was that the file /etc/init.d/apache2 was empty! To restore it, follow the tips here: http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-68459.html