diff --git a/dnsmasq.service b/dnsmasq.service
index 07fa92e..08faf75 100644
--- a/dnsmasq.service
+++ b/dnsmasq.service
@@ -3,7 +3,9 @@ Description=DNS caching server.
 After=network.target
 
 [Service]
-ExecStart=/usr/sbin/dnsmasq -k
+ExecStart=/usr/sbin/dnsmasq
+Type=forking
+PIDFile=/run/dnsmasq.pid
 
 [Install]
 WantedBy=multi-user.target
diff --git a/dnsmasq.spec b/dnsmasq.spec
index 2fef960..9cfc388 100644
--- a/dnsmasq.spec
+++ b/dnsmasq.spec
@@ -111,6 +111,7 @@ done
 #set default user /group in src/config.h
 sed -i 's|#define CHUSER "nobody"|#define CHUSER "dnsmasq"|' src/config.h
 sed -i 's|#define CHGRP "dip"|#define CHGRP "dnsmasq"|' src/config.h
+sed -i "s|\(#\s*define RUNFILE\) \"/var/run/dnsmasq.pid\"|\1 \"%{_rundir}/dnsmasq.pid\"|" src/config.h
 
 # optional parts
 sed -i 's|^COPTS[[:space:]]*=|\0 -DHAVE_DBUS -DHAVE_LIBIDN2 -DHAVE_DNSSEC|' Makefile
@@ -188,6 +189,7 @@ install -Dpm 644 %{SOURCE2} %{buildroot}%{_sysusersdir}/%{name}.conf
 %changelog
 * Thu Apr 15 2021 Petr Menšík <pemensik@redhat.com> - 2.85-1
 - Update to 2.85 (#1978728)
+- Switch systemd unit to forking, reports error on startup (#1774028)
 
 * Thu Apr 15 2021 Mohan Boddu <mboddu@redhat.com> - 2.84-2
 - Rebuilt for RHEL 9 BETA on Apr 15th 2021. Related: rhbz#1947937