diff --git a/FEATURE-REMOVAL-SCHEDULE b/FEATURE-REMOVAL-SCHEDULE
index 682bed88..2c05a3ee 100644
--- a/FEATURE-REMOVAL-SCHEDULE
+++ b/FEATURE-REMOVAL-SCHEDULE
@@ -59,3 +59,14 @@ Why: Depprecated in favor of executable scripts in @SYSCONFDIR@/local.d
 Who:
 
 ---------------------------
+
+What: the mtab service script
+
+When: 1.0
+
+Why: /etc/mtab should be a symbolic link to /proc/self/mounts on modern
+	 Linux systems
+
+Who:
+
+---------------------------
diff --git a/init.d/mtab.in b/init.d/mtab.in
index 8e5bc2fb..0cd73696 100644
--- a/init.d/mtab.in
+++ b/init.d/mtab.in
@@ -12,12 +12,16 @@ depend()
 
 start()
 {
-	if [ -L /etc/mtab ]
-	then
-		einfo "Skipping mtab update (mtab is a symbolic link)"
+	if [ -L /etc/mtab ]; then
 		return 0
 	fi
 
+	ewarn "Please run the following command as root on your system."
+	ewarn
+	ewarn "ln -snf /proc/self/mounts /etc/mtab"
+	ewarn
+	ewarn "The support for updating /etc/mtab as a file is"
+	ewarn "deprecated and will be removed in the future."
 	ebegin "Updating /etc/mtab"
 	if ! echo 2>/dev/null >/etc/mtab; then
 		ewend 1 "/etc/mtab is not updateable"