diff --git a/meta-forgefirm/recipes-forgefirm/forgefirm-logging/files/forgefirm-logging.init b/meta-forgefirm/recipes-forgefirm/forgefirm-logging/files/forgefirm-logging.init
index 056c035..1ccb74b 100644
--- a/meta-forgefirm/recipes-forgefirm/forgefirm-logging/files/forgefirm-logging.init
+++ b/meta-forgefirm/recipes-forgefirm/forgefirm-logging/files/forgefirm-logging.init
@@ -24,6 +24,13 @@ LEGACY=/data/forgefirm/legacy-logs
 
 RULES=/data/forgefirm/rsyslog-forgefirm.conf
 
+# The daemons log to /dev/log with non-blocking datagrams and drop what
+# the socket will not take. The kernel default queue is 10 datagrams;
+# forgectrl's arm-time burst alone is about 20, so a 10-deep queue lost
+# the lines around every job start (the named safing writes among them).
+# 512 holds any burst the daemons make until rsyslog drains it.
+DGRAM_QLEN=512
+
 render() {
     # syslog is not up yet at this point: report to the console
     if [ -x "$FORGECTRL" ]; then
@@ -66,6 +73,8 @@ sweep_legacy() {
 
 case "$1" in
   start)
+    # before rsyslog (S20) and the daemons that log to it
+    [ -w /proc/sys/net/unix/max_dgram_qlen ] && echo "$DGRAM_QLEN" > /proc/sys/net/unix/max_dgram_qlen
     render
     sweep_legacy
     [ -x "$LOGROTATE" ] || exit 0