@papampi:

the /dev/watchdog* device is created by the module (one device per loaded module is created). /etc/default/watchdog is where you specify the watchdog module to load at watchdog start.

both /etc/init.d/watchdog and the systemctl service look there and load it.

What happens at boot when you use rc.local is that the "start" command gets stuck and never returns. After some time you can do stop and start again and it works then, but not immediately after boot, which is "puzzling" me.

I tried to add a delay (120sec) in rc.local and it won't start watchdog regardless. So I'm trying variations here atm.