diff --git a/overlays/wwinit/etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/wwclient.service b/overlays/wwinit/etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/wwclient.service
new file mode 120000
index 00000000..84f22df4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/overlays/wwinit/etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/wwclient.service
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+/etc/systemd/system/wwclient.service
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/overlays/wwinit/warewulf/init.d/80-wwclient b/overlays/wwinit/warewulf/init.d/80-wwclient
index 184dac4e..d0945766 100644
--- a/overlays/wwinit/warewulf/init.d/80-wwclient
+++ b/overlays/wwinit/warewulf/init.d/80-wwclient
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 
 . /warewulf/config
-
+# Only start if the systemd is no available
+test -e /usr/lib/systemd/systemd && exit 0
 echo "Starting wwclient"
 nohup /warewulf/bin/wwclient >/var/log/wwclient.log 2>&1 </dev/null &