bind 9.4.1_p1 can't start from init-script

[sinthetek]

I can start bind fine by hand but cannot get the init script to run properly. It seems to be ignoring options in /etc/conf.d/named and can't seem to write the pid file to /var/run. I've tried creating the file and chowning it to named:named but it exits with a 'file exists' error. When I remove it, there is a 'permission denied' error. If I try to create a directory owned by named and set it in /etc/conf.d, it seems to get ignored (the logs give the same error about the same /var/run/named.pid).

Does anyone know how to resolve this issue?