diff --git a/src/login/user-runtime-dir.c b/src/login/user-runtime-dir.c
index 38058d7b2a..8ba916f05e 100644
--- a/src/login/user-runtime-dir.c
+++ b/src/login/user-runtime-dir.c
@@ -7,9 +7,10 @@
 
 #include "bus-error.h"
 #include "dev-setup.h"
-#include "fs-util.h"
 #include "format-util.h"
+#include "fs-util.h"
 #include "label.h"
+#include "limits-util.h"
 #include "main-func.h"
 #include "mkdir.h"
 #include "mountpoint-util.h"
@@ -32,12 +33,16 @@ static int acquire_runtime_dir_properties(uint64_t *size, uint64_t *inodes) {
                 return log_error_errno(r, "Failed to connect to system bus: %m");
 
         r = sd_bus_get_property_trivial(bus, "org.freedesktop.login1", "/org/freedesktop/login1", "org.freedesktop.login1.Manager", "RuntimeDirectorySize", &error, 't', size);
-        if (r < 0)
-                return log_error_errno(r, "Failed to acquire runtime directory size: %s", bus_error_message(&error, r));
+        if (r < 0) {
+                log_warning_errno(r, "Failed to acquire runtime directory size, ignoring: %s", bus_error_message(&error, r));
+                *size = physical_memory_scale(10U, 100U); /* 10% */
+        }
 
         r = sd_bus_get_property_trivial(bus, "org.freedesktop.login1", "/org/freedesktop/login1", "org.freedesktop.login1.Manager", "RuntimeDirectoryInodesMax", &error, 't', inodes);
-        if (r < 0)
-                return log_error_errno(r, "Failed to acquire number of inodes for runtime directory: %s", bus_error_message(&error, r));
+        if (r < 0) {
+                log_warning_errno(r, "Failed to acquire number of inodes for runtime directory, ignoring: %s", bus_error_message(&error, r));
+                *inodes = DIV_ROUND_UP(*size, 4096);
+        }
 
         return 0;
 }