Before using my suggestion below, please consider first that I am a "dummy programmer" and then, that I am using Ubuntu server 12.04 LTS 64 bits. If you are using another distro or version, you may need to adapt the upstart script. Also, I am not sure if this is the right way of doing it, but it worked for me... Finally, I did not convert some of the start-up scripts.
 
Now, the problem I see is that this addresses "my problem" (Kamailio+MySQL on Ubuntu running Upstart). However, it would be nice to have a more complete script. I.e.: If you are not running MySQL, then you have to change the upstart script to match your SQL engine. The old init script had a "Should-Start" statement so you could get anything to start before Kamailio (postgresql mysql radius, etc.) without being a "must" like in upstart. But I could not find the equivalent command for this in Upstart docs... So I let here the challenge for the community to improve what I could accomplish so far.
 
The first thing you need to do is to remove (or not install) the /etc/init.d/kamailio init script. Then you need to create a symlink to the kamailio upstart conf file that should be at /ect/init/. To do so:
 
# First save you original init script if you have one
mv /etc/init.d/kamailio ~
 
# Create symlink to upstart .conf file
ln -s /etc/init/kamailio.conf /etc/init.d/kamailio
 
Then create a /etc/init/kamailio.conf (notice it is /etc/init/ not /etc/init.d/) with the following content:
 
# Kamailio Service
 
description   "Kamailio server"
author         "Moacir Ferreira"
 
# Change anything here
# to match your environment
env NAME=kamailio
env DAEMON=/sbin/kamailio
env CFGFILE=/etc/kamailio/kamailio.cfg
env USER=kamailio
env GROUP=kamailio
 
start on runlevel [2345]
stop on starting rc RUNLEVEL=[016]
 
# This is required to start Kamailio
# after MySQL
start on started mysql
 
# This is required when the daemon
# forks 2 times
expect daemon
 
# Include this to see the nice
# kamailo init messages at the console
console output
 
pre-start script
 
# Do not start kamailio if fork=no is set in the config file
if grep -q "^[[:space:]]*fork[[:space:]]*=[[:space:]]*no.*" $CFGFILE; then
   echo "$NAME ERROR: Kamilio not set to fork. Review your config or start it in debug mode.";
   exit 1;
fi
 
# Check if kamailio configuration is valid before starting the server.
out=$($DAEMON -c 2>&1 > /dev/null)
retcode=$?
set -e
if [ "$retcode" != '0' ]; then
   echo "$NAME ERROR: Config file invalid."
   exit 1;
fi
 
end script
 
exec $DAEMON -f $CFGFILE -u $USER -g $GROUP
 
# This is the end of the script
 
Good luck and Cheers!
 
Moacir