> the crond log tells me that cron actually runs this command every minute without a problem i think you mis-read your log. and it should tell you that cron is looking for changes in /etc/cron.d every minute. may be, if you change you first * * * in your lol then may be it will work. assuming you're using the good cron. because fcron does not support /etc/cron.d but there is other ways to achieve the same thing. check crond man page or its documentation