init.d script ignored in yocto based distro

I'm modifying an embedded distro that is built using the yocto project. I need to add cron to it and have the cron daemon start on startup. I have created the symlink /etc/rc5.d/S98cronstart that points to the cron start script included in the standard yocto metalayer.

It seems to be ignored completely when the system boots though, but if I execute the symlink manually everything is fine. I tried to modify it so the script creates a file when ran, and sure enough it is not created on sytem startup but it is created if I run it manually.

Any ideas on what's wrong or how I would go about debugging this?