$rpm -q watchdog 
watchdog-5.8-alt1
$rpm -qc watchdog
/etc/rc.d/init.d/watchdog

Из лога обновления (etckeeper):

diff --git a/watchdog.conf b/watchdog.conf
index dab0fc7..afa8a6f 100644
--- a/watchdog.conf
+++ b/watchdog.conf
@@ -27,8 +27,9 @@ watchdog-device   = /dev/watchdog
 
 # Defaults compiled into the binary
 #admin         = root
-#interval      = 10
-logtick                = 60
+#interval      = 1
+#logtick                = 1
+#logdir            = /var/log/watchdog
 
 # This greatly decreases the chance that watchdog won't be scheduled before
 # your machine is really loaded
@@ -38,4 +39,3 @@ priority      = 1
 # Check if syslogd is still running by enabling the following line
 #pidfile       = /var/run/syslogd.pid   
 
-admin                   = root

т.е. молча потерялись все изменения.