diff --git a/xCAT-genesis-scripts/usr/bin/doxcat b/xCAT-genesis-scripts/usr/bin/doxcat
index cfd1d48ca..505c3c6bc 100755
--- a/xCAT-genesis-scripts/usr/bin/doxcat
+++ b/xCAT-genesis-scripts/usr/bin/doxcat
@@ -8,12 +8,15 @@ log_label="xcat.genesis.doxcat"
 # Start rsyslogd and log into a local file specified in /etc/rsyslog.conf
 # Later, once xCAT MN is known, dhclient-script will change
 # rsyslog.conf file to send log entries to xCAT MN
-RSYSLOGD_VERSION=`rsyslogd -v | grep "rsyslogd" | cut -d" " -f2 | cut -d"." -f1`
+RSYSLOGD_VERSION=`rsyslogd -v | grep -m1 "rsyslogd" | tr -s ' ' | cut -d" " -f2 | cut -d"." -f1`
 
 # if syslog is running and there's a pid file, kill it before restarting syslogd
 if [ -f /var/run/syslogd.pid ]; then
     kill -TERM `cat /var/run/syslogd.pid`
 fi
+if [ -f /var/run/rsyslogd.pid ]; then
+    kill -TERM `cat /var/run/rsyslogd.pid`
+fi
 
 if [ $RSYSLOGD_VERSION -ge 8 ]; then
     /sbin/rsyslogd
@@ -66,6 +69,10 @@ fi
 rpcbind
 rpc.statd
 
+# Generate some entropy, needed for ssh-keygen to unblock getrandom()
+if [ -e /usr/sbin/rngd ]; then
+    /usr/sbin/rngd
+fi
 # Try -A available on more current version of ssh-keygen to generate all keys
 ssh-keygen -A 2> /dev/null
 if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
@@ -263,17 +270,21 @@ logger -s -t $log_label -p local4.info "Acquired IPv4 address on $bootnic"
 
 ip -4 -o a show dev $bootnic|grep -v 'scope link'|grep -v 'dynamic'|awk '{print $4}'
 
-logger -s -t $log_label -p local4.info "Starting ntpd..."
-ntpd -g -x
+if [ -e /usr/sbin/ntpd ]; then
+    logger -s -t $log_label -p local4.info "Starting ntpd..."
+    ntpd -g -x
 
-# ntp-wait defaults to 6 seconds between retries, wait for 1 minute
-NTP_TRIES=10
-NTP_SLEEP=6
-logger -s -t $log_label -p local4.info "Waiting for $NTP_TRIES x $NTP_SLEEP seconds for ntpd to synchronize..."
-ntp-wait -n $NTP_TRIES -s $NTP_SLEEP -v
-if [ $? -ne 0 ]
-then
-    logger -s -t $log_label -p local4.info "... ntpd did not synchronize."
+    # ntp-wait defaults to 6 seconds between retries, wait for 1 minute
+    NTP_TRIES=10
+    NTP_SLEEP=6
+    logger -s -t $log_label -p local4.info "Waiting for $NTP_TRIES x $NTP_SLEEP seconds for ntpd to synchronize..."
+    ntp-wait -n $NTP_TRIES -s $NTP_SLEEP -v
+    if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
+        logger -s -t $log_label -p local4.info "... ntpd did not synchronize."
+    fi
+else
+    logger -s -t $log_label -p local4.info "Starting chronyd..."
+    chronyd -s
 fi
 
 if [ -e "/dev/rtc" ]; then
@@ -283,15 +294,13 @@ if [ -e "/dev/rtc" ]; then
 fi
 
 logger -s -t $log_label -p local4.info "Restarting syslog..."
-read -r RSYSLOG_PID </var/run/syslogd.pid 2>/dev/null
-kill "$RSYSLOG_PID" 2>/dev/null
-while kill -0 "$RSYSLOG_PID" 2>/dev/null
-do
-    sleep 0.5
-done
-unset RSYSLOG_PID
+if [ -f /var/run/syslogd.pid ]; then
+    kill -TERM `cat /var/run/syslogd.pid`
+fi
+if [ -f /var/run/rsyslogd.pid ]; then
+    kill -TERM `cat /var/run/rsyslogd.pid`
+fi
 
-RSYSLOGD_VERSION=`rsyslogd -v | awk '/rsyslogd/ { split($2, a, "."); print a[1]; }'`
 if [ "$RSYSLOGD_VERSION" -ge 8 ]; then
     /sbin/rsyslogd
 else
diff --git a/xCAT-genesis-scripts/usr/bin/restart b/xCAT-genesis-scripts/usr/bin/restart
index bb1ef0c84..d27c9f832 100755
--- a/xCAT-genesis-scripts/usr/bin/restart
+++ b/xCAT-genesis-scripts/usr/bin/restart
@@ -44,9 +44,15 @@ while [ $WAITING -gt 0 ]; do
     done
 
     # restart rsyslog after dhclient
-    kill -9 `cat /var/run/syslogd.pid`
+    if [ -f /var/run/syslogd.pid ]; then
+        kill -TERM `cat /var/run/syslogd.pid`
+    fi
+    if [ -f /var/run/rsyslogd.pid ]; then
+        kill -TERM `cat /var/run/rsyslogd.pid`
+    fi
     sleep 3
-    RSYSLOGD_VERSION=`rsyslogd -v | grep "rsyslogd" | cut -d" " -f2 | cut -d"." -f1`
+
+    RSYSLOGD_VERSION=`rsyslogd -v | grep -m1 "rsyslogd" | tr -s ' ' | cut -d" " -f2 | cut -d"." -f1`
     if [ $RSYSLOGD_VERSION -ge 8 ]; then
         # Newer versions of rsyslogd do not support -c flag anymore
         /sbin/rsyslogd