diff --git a/debian/ai-auth-server.init b/debian/ai-auth-server.init
index 4f28f6a055f4433b6bd0ce1cd7672c0f3fc49224..c0daff261233db33bfd83ca202d860fdb53a93c9 100644
--- a/debian/ai-auth-server.init
+++ b/debian/ai-auth-server.init
@@ -51,14 +51,11 @@ do_start()
         #   0 if daemon has been started
         #   1 if daemon was already running
         #   2 if daemon could not be started
-        pre_start
-
-        start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --background --make-pidfile --pidfile $PIDFILE -
--chuid $USER:$GROUP --umask 007 --exec $DAEMON --test > /dev/null \
+        start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --background --make-pidfile --pidfile $PIDFILE \
+            --chuid $USER:$GROUP --umask 007 --exec $DAEMON --test > /dev/null \
                 || return 1
-        start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --background --make-pidfile --pidfile $PIDFILE -
--chuid $USER:$GROUP --umask 007 --exec $DAEMON -- \
-                --syslog $DAEMON_ARGS \
+        start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --background --make-pidfile --pidfile $PIDFILE \
+            --chuid $USER:$GROUP --umask 007 --exec $DAEMON -- $DAEMON_ARGS \
                 || return 2
         # Add code here, if necessary, that waits for the process to be ready
         # to handle requests from services started subsequently which depend