diff --git a/mkosi/mkosi.images/minimal-base/mkosi.postinst b/mkosi/mkosi.images/minimal-base/mkosi.postinst
index 777bdfd449..475f40fdc0 100755
--- a/mkosi/mkosi.images/minimal-base/mkosi.postinst
+++ b/mkosi/mkosi.images/minimal-base/mkosi.postinst
@@ -3,6 +3,8 @@ set -e
 
 # We don't use mkosi.extra because /usr/sbin could be a symlink and cp doesn't handle that properly until
 # coreutils 9.5 or newer.
+mkdir -p "$BUILDROOT/sbin"
+rm -f "$BUILDROOT/sbin/init"
 cat >"$BUILDROOT/sbin/init" <<EOF
 #!/bin/bash
 echo "Hello from dummy init, beautiful day, innit?"