diff --git a/ipmitool/contrib/Makefile.am b/ipmitool/contrib/Makefile.am
index 36d8931..5969833 100644
--- a/ipmitool/contrib/Makefile.am
+++ b/ipmitool/contrib/Makefile.am
@@ -34,6 +34,6 @@
 
 MAINTAINERCLEANFILES	= Makefile.in
 
-dist_pkgdata_DATA	= bmclanconf README \
+dist_pkgdata_DATA	= bmclanconf ipmi.init README \
 	collect_data.sh create_rrds.sh create_webpage_compact.sh create_webpage.sh
 
diff --git a/ipmitool/contrib/ipmi.init b/ipmitool/contrib/ipmi.init
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..9f523bc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ipmitool/contrib/ipmi.init
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+
+echo "Setting up OpenIPMI driver..."
+
+# load the ipmi modules
+modprobe ipmi_msghandler
+modprobe ipmi_devintf
+if ! modprobe ipmi_kcs_drv ; then
+	modprobe ipmi_si # try new module name
+fi
+
+maj=$(cat /proc/devices | awk '/ipmidev/{print $1}')
+if [ "$maj" ]; then
+    test -e /dev/ipmi0 && rm -f /dev/ipmi0
+    /bin/mknod /dev/ipmi0 c $maj 0
+fi
+