diff --git a/release/Makefile b/release/Makefile
index a03951d17499..6f59647ff5db 100644
--- a/release/Makefile
+++ b/release/Makefile
@@ -123,7 +123,7 @@ base.txz:
 	sh ${WORLDDIR}/usr.sbin/etcupdate/etcupdate.sh extract -B \
 	    -m "${MAKE}" -M "TARGET_ARCH=${TARGET_ARCH} TARGET=${TARGET}" \
 	    -s ${WORLDDIR} -d "${.OBJDIR}/${DISTDIR}/base/var/db/etcupdate" \
-	    ${NO_ROOT:D-N}
+	    -L /dev/null ${NO_ROOT:D-N}
 .if defined(NO_ROOT)
 	echo "./var/db/etcupdate type=dir uname=root gname=wheel mode=0755" >> ${.OBJDIR}/${DISTDIR}/base.meta
 	sed -n 's,^\.,./var/db/etcupdate/current,p' ${.OBJDIR}/${DISTDIR}/base/var/db/etcupdate/current/METALOG \