diff --git a/tools/package/init/onos.conf b/tools/package/init/onos.conf
index f415f8e..779df90 100644
--- a/tools/package/init/onos.conf
+++ b/tools/package/init/onos.conf
@@ -13,9 +13,12 @@
 env LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 
 pre-start script
+    [ -f /opt/onos/options ] && . /opt/onos/options
+    ONOS_USER=${ONOS_USER:-root}
+
     # Ensure that the environment is initialized
-    [ -d /opt/onos ] && mkdir -p /opt/onos/var
-    [ -d /opt/onos ] && mkdir -p /opt/onos/config
+    [ -d /opt/onos ] && mkdir /opt/onos/var 2>/dev/null && chown $ONOS_USER.$ONOS_USER /opt/onos/var
+    [ -d /opt/onos ] && mkdir /opt/onos/config 2>/dev/null && chown $ONOS_USER.$ONOS_USER /opt/onos/config
     # TODO make karaf version configurable
     [ -d /opt/onos ] && [ ! -h /opt/onos/log ] \
          && ln -s /opt/onos/apache-karaf-3.0.3/data/log /opt/onos/log || :