You should add: syslogd_flags="${syslogd_flags} -a /var/unbound/dev/log" to /etc/rc.conf.local to create a syslog socket in the unbound chroot. You may also want to add the following to /etc/rc.local to start unbound at boot: if [ -x ${PREFIX}/sbin/unbound ]; then echo -n ' unbound'; ${PREFIX}/sbin/unbound fi