diff --git a/doc/guide.tex b/doc/guide.tex
index 0c9483c2b..28be76c66 100644
--- a/doc/guide.tex
+++ b/doc/guide.tex
@@ -251,8 +251,9 @@ and for example it doesn't read the file ejabberdctl.cfg.
 On a *nix system, if you want ejabberd to be started as daemon at boot time,
 copy \term{ejabberd.init} from the 'bin' directory to something like \term{/etc/init.d/ejabberd}
 (depending on your distribution).
-Create a system user called \term{ejabberd};
-it will be used by the script to start the server.
+Create a system user called \term{ejabberd},
+give it write access to the directories \term{database/} and \term{logs/}, and set that as home;
+the script will start the server with that user.
 Then you can call \term{/etc/inid.d/ejabberd start} as root to start the server.
 
 If \term{ejabberd} doesn't start correctly in Windows,