For a service script to be recognized by chkconfig on RHEL 4 systems, it must include specific metadata comments in the header section. These special comments define:

• Service dependencies (chkconfig lines)
• Process description (description line)
• Runlevel configuration

Here's the required header format with working examples:

#!/bin/sh
#
# chkconfig: 2345 90 10
# description: OpenOffice headless server
# processname: soffice
# pidfile: /var/run/soffice.pid

The chkconfig line contains three critical values:

# chkconfig: <start_priority> <stop_priority> <runlevels>

Here's your modified script with proper chkconfig support:

#!/bin/sh
#
# chkconfig: 2345 90 10
# description: OpenOffice headless server
# processname: soffice
# pidfile: /var/run/soffice.pid

soffice_start() {
    if [ -x /opt/openoffice.org2.4/program/soffice ]; then
        echo "Starting Open Office as a Service"
        /opt/openoffice.org2.4/program/soffice \
        -headless -accept="socket,host=0.0.0.0,port=8100;urp;StarOffice.ServiceManager" \
        -nofirststartwizard &
        echo $! > /var/run/soffice.pid
    else
        echo "Error: Could not find the soffice program. Cannot Start SOffice."
    fi
}

soffice_stop() {
    if [ -f /var/run/soffice.pid ]; then
        echo "Stopping Openoffice"
        kill -9 $(cat /var/run/soffice.pid) 2> /dev/null
        rm -f /var/run/soffice.pid
    else
        echo "Error: PID file not found. Using killall fallback."
        [ -x /usr/bin/killall ] && /usr/bin/killall soffice 2> /dev/null
    fi
}

case "$1" in
    'start')
        soffice_start
        ;;
    'stop')
        soffice_stop
        sleep 2
        ;;
    'restart')
        soffice_stop
        sleep 5
        soffice_start
        ;;
    *)
        echo "usage: $0 start|stop|restart"
esac

1. Save the script as /etc/init.d/soffice
2. Set executable permissions: chmod +x /etc/init.d/soffice
3. Add to chkconfig: chkconfig --add soffice
4. Verify: chkconfig --list soffice

If issues persist after adding the metadata:

# Verify script syntax
bash -n /etc/init.d/soffice

# Check LSB compliance
lsb_release -a

# Manual runlevel symlink creation
ln -s /etc/init.d/soffice /etc/rc3.d/S90soffice
ln -s /etc/init.d/soffice /etc/rc0.d/K10soffice

For a service script to work with chkconfig on RHEL/CentOS systems, it must contain special LSB (Linux Standard Base) headers and follow specific conventions. The error "service does not support chkconfig" occurs when these requirements aren't met.

Here's how to modify your OpenOffice service script to be chkconfig-compatible:

#!/bin/sh
#
# chkconfig: 345 90 10
# description: OpenOffice headless server
# processname: soffice
# config: /etc/openoffice.cfg

soffice_start() {
    if [ -x /opt/openoffice.org2.4/program/soffice ]; then
        echo "Starting Open Office as a Service"
        /opt/openoffice.org2.4/program/soffice \
        -headless -accept="socket,host=0.0.0.0,port=8100;urp;StarOffice.ServiceManager" \
        -nofirststartwizard &
    else
        echo "Error: Could not find the soffice program. Cannot Start SOffice."
    fi
}

1. chkconfig header (# chkconfig: 345 90 10):

• 345: Runlevels where service should start
• 90: Start priority (higher numbers start later)
• 10: Stop priority (higher numbers stop earlier)

2. Other required metadata:

• description: Brief service description
• processname: Main process name
• config: Optional configuration file path

After modifying the script:

# Copy to init.d
sudo cp soffice /etc/init.d/
sudo chmod +x /etc/init.d/soffice

# Add to chkconfig
sudo chkconfig --add soffice

# Verify
sudo chkconfig --list soffice

For services with dependencies, add LSB headers like:

### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides:          soffice
# Required-Start:    $network $remote_fs
# Required-Stop:     $network $remote_fs
# Default-Start:     3 4 5
# Default-Stop:      0 1 2 6
# Short-Description: OpenOffice headless service
# Description:       Provides OpenOffice as headless server on port 8100
### END INIT INFO

If issues persist:

• Verify script has execute permissions (chmod +x)
• Check for syntax errors (bash -n /etc/init.d/soffice)
• Test script manually before chkconfig integration
• Confirm LSB headers are at the very beginning of the file