the /etc/init.d/lighttpd script hard-codes the user/group under which lighttpd runs. The line is: checkpath -d -q -m 0750 -o lighttpd:lighttpd /var/run/lighttpd/ This line no longer functions correctly when lighttpd runs under different credentials which is supported by server.username/server.groupname settings in lighttpd.conf Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: Change server.username/server.groupname settings in lighttpd.conf /etc/init.d/lighttpd restart Actual Results: Warning is produced: checkpath: owner `lighttpd:lighttpd' not found Is the checkpath line even needed? The pid file is created in /var/run rather than /var/run/lighttpd The issue can be fixed in /etc/conf.d/lighttpd using the same method to extract user/group values from conf file as used to extract the pid file path: LIGHTTPD_PID="$(/usr/bin/awk '/^server.pid-file/{s=$3};{sub("\"","",s)};END{print s}' ${LIGHTTPD_CONF})" Add: LIGHTTPD_USER="$(/usr/bin/awk '/^server.username/{s=$3};{sub("\"","",s)};END{print s}' ${LIGHTTPD_CONF})" LIGHTTPD_GROUP="$(/usr/bin/awk '/^server.groupname/{s=$3};{sub("\"","",s)};END{print s}' ${LIGHTTPD_CONF})"
This is now in git. Resync and remerge to get the updated initd file. Be sure to double-check the permissions of your server's directories (mine complained at /var/log/lighttpd), as a mismatch will result in the init-script failing to work. Once permissions are good, you can change the given user at will via /etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf as expected. Commit-ID: 0db692284d2789ec6fa2ca82d630bd825f8a7f01 Marking as RESOLVED. Reopen if this doesn't work for you.