diff --git a/admin/syslog-ng/Makefile b/admin/syslog-ng/Makefile
index 0a2c99bf0..e294ff577 100644
--- a/admin/syslog-ng/Makefile
+++ b/admin/syslog-ng/Makefile
@@ -2,13 +2,12 @@ include  $(TOPDIR)/rules.mk
 
 PKG_NAME:=syslog-ng
 PKG_VERSION:=3.9.1
-PKG_RELEASE:=2
+PKG_RELEASE:=3
 
 PKG_MAINTAINER:=W. Michael Petullo <mike@flyn.org>
 
 PKG_SOURCE:=$(PKG_NAME)-$(PKG_VERSION).tar.gz
 PKG_SOURCE_URL:=https://github.com/balabit/syslog-ng/releases/download/$(PKG_NAME)-$(PKG_VERSION)/
-PKG_MD5SUM:=1b48da9ef620cf06e55e481b5abb677a
 PKG_HASH:=5678856a550ae790618fabde9d1447f932ce7a9080d55dca8fc5df1202c70a17
 
 PKG_INSTALL:=1
@@ -31,7 +30,8 @@ define Package/syslog-ng/description
 endef
 
 define Package/syslog-ng/conffiles
-  /etc/syslog-ng.conf
+/etc/syslog-ng.conf
+/etc/syslog-ng.d/
 endef
 
 define Build/Configure
@@ -69,8 +69,8 @@ define Package/syslog-ng/install
 		install-moduleLTLIBRARIES DESTDIR="$(1)"
 	$(INSTALL_DIR) $(1)/etc/init.d
 	$(INSTALL_BIN) ./files/syslog-ng.init $(1)/etc/init.d/syslog-ng
-	$(INSTALL_DIR) $(1)/etc
 	$(INSTALL_DATA) ./files/syslog-ng.conf $(1)/etc
+	$(INSTALL_DIR) $(1)/etc/syslog-ng.d/
 	$(call libtool_remove_files,$(1))
 endef
 
diff --git a/admin/syslog-ng/files/custom-logs.conf b/admin/syslog-ng/files/custom-logs.conf
deleted file mode 100644
index 9c8f4413b..000000000
--- a/admin/syslog-ng/files/custom-logs.conf
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,2 +0,0 @@
-# place to put customization of logging
-
diff --git a/admin/syslog-ng/files/syslog-ng.conf b/admin/syslog-ng/files/syslog-ng.conf
index 9e09a79e2..cae24a848 100644
--- a/admin/syslog-ng/files/syslog-ng.conf
+++ b/admin/syslog-ng/files/syslog-ng.conf
@@ -36,5 +36,6 @@ log {
 	destination(messages);
 };
 
-@include "/etc/custom-logs.conf"
+# put any customization files in this directory
+@include "/etc/syslog-ng.d/"
 
diff --git a/admin/syslog-ng/files/syslog-ng.init b/admin/syslog-ng/files/syslog-ng.init
index cecb3f904..5af9bb47b 100644
--- a/admin/syslog-ng/files/syslog-ng.init
+++ b/admin/syslog-ng/files/syslog-ng.init
@@ -2,18 +2,30 @@
 # Copyright (C) 2006-2016 OpenWrt.org
 
 START=20
+PROG=/usr/sbin/syslog-ng
+PROG2=/usr/sbin/syslog-ng-ctl
 
 SERVICE_USE_PID=1
+SERVICE_PID_FILE=/var/log/syslog-ng.pid
+
+config_file=/etc/syslog-ng.conf
 
 start() {
-	[ -f /etc/syslog-ng.conf ] || return 1
-	service_start /usr/sbin/syslog-ng
+	[ -f $config_file ] || return 1
+
+	if ! $PROG -s 2>/dev/null ; then
+		echo "Couldn't parse $(basename $config_file)" >&2
+		exit 1
+	fi
+
+	service_start $PROG --process-mode background \
+		-p $SERVICE_PID_FILE
 }
 
 stop() {
-	service_stop /usr/sbin/syslog-ng
+	service_stop $PROG
 }
 
 reload() {
-	service_reload /usr/sbin/syslog-ng
+	$PROG2 reload
 }