Comment 6 for bug 1303891

misch-9:
"initct: Not running" is a different error messages, it means dbus is not running / there is no main daemon process.

I've run 12.04 live cd, installed upstart from trusty and verified this bug report like so:

$ sudo -i
# initctl version
init (upstart 1.5)
// pid1 is precise upstart
# inictl --version
initctl (upstart 1.12.1)
// initctl is from trusty
# initctl status dbus
dbus start/running, process 1221
// dbus _is_ running
# initctl reload dbus
# echo $?
0
// reload is successful