diff --git a/src/service.c b/src/service.c
index 7a522bf3f..dac4adaa6 100644
--- a/src/service.c
+++ b/src/service.c
@@ -1568,7 +1568,7 @@ static int service_spawn(
                 goto fail;
         }
 
-        if (!(our_env = new0(char*, 3))) {
+        if (!(our_env = new0(char*, 4))) {
                 r = -ENOMEM;
                 goto fail;
         }
@@ -1585,6 +1585,14 @@ static int service_spawn(
                         goto fail;
                 }
 
+        /* Make sure we set TERM=linux for SysV scripts, since some
+         * require it to be set from the kernel */
+        if (s->sysv_path && !strv_env_get(s->meta.manager->environment, "TERM"))
+                if (!(our_env[n_env++] = strdup("TERM=linux"))) {
+                        r = -ENOMEM;
+                        goto fail;
+                }
+
         if (!(final_env = strv_env_merge(2,
                                          s->meta.manager->environment,
                                          our_env,