In order to start ejabberd at boot and stop it properly at shutdown, make sure rc.local and rc.local_shutdown contain the following lines: /etc/rc.d/rc.local ================== # Start ejabberd if [ -x /etc/rc.d/rc.ejabberd ]; then /etc/rc.d/rc.ejabberd start fi /etc/rc.d/rc.local_shutdown =========================== # Stop ejabberd if [ -x /etc/rc.d/rc.ejabberd ]; then /etc/rc.d/rc.ejabberd stop fi