diff --git a/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/coreos/config/make.conf.amd64-host b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/coreos/config/make.conf.amd64-host
index 6aa2f081a0..19bdc50aa7 100644
--- a/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/coreos/config/make.conf.amd64-host
+++ b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/coreos/config/make.conf.amd64-host
@@ -26,7 +26,8 @@ PORTDIR_OVERLAY="
 # of the ChromiumOS set.  You can use "--select" to override this.
 EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS="--oneshot"
 
-# Use parallel bzip2 for portage if available
+# Use parallel bzip2 for portage
+# TODO(marineam): switch to lbzip2
 PORTAGE_BZIP2_COMMAND="pbzip2"
 PORTAGE_BUNZIP2_COMMAND="pbunzip2 --ignore-trailing-garbage=1"
 
diff --git a/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/coreos/config/make.conf.common-target b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/coreos/config/make.conf.common-target
index cf2d98f027..1a8ddeacd0 100644
--- a/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/coreos/config/make.conf.common-target
+++ b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/coreos/config/make.conf.common-target
@@ -37,9 +37,9 @@ PORTDIR_OVERLAY="
 # of the ChromiumOS set.  You can use "--select" to override this.
 EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS="--oneshot"
 
-# Use parallel bzip2 for portage if available
-PORTAGE_BZIP2_COMMAND="pbzip2"
-PORTAGE_BUNZIP2_COMMAND="pbunzip2 --ignore-trailing-garbage=1"
+# Use parallel bzip2 for portage
+PORTAGE_BZIP2_COMMAND="lbzip2"
+PORTAGE_BUNZIP2_COMMAND="lbunzip2"
 
 FETCHCOMMAND_GS="bash -c 'BOTO_CONFIG=/home/\${PORTAGE_USERNAME}/.boto gsutil cp \"${URI}\" \"${DISTDIR}/${FILE}\"'"
 RESUMECOMMAND_GS="bash -c 'BOTO_CONFIG=/home/\${PORTAGE_USERNAME}/.boto gsutil cp \"${URI}\" \"${DISTDIR}/${FILE}\"'"
diff --git a/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/profiles/default/linux/packages b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/profiles/default/linux/packages
index d0b097bcb7..2ce8e2eb94 100644
--- a/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/profiles/default/linux/packages
+++ b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/profiles/default/linux/packages
@@ -13,3 +13,4 @@
 *sys-apps/man-pages
 *sys-apps/util-linux
 *sys-apps/efunctions
+*app-arch/lbzip2
diff --git a/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/profiles/default/linux/packages.build b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/profiles/default/linux/packages.build
index f2d85b0b28..e8d3c0feb2 100644
--- a/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/profiles/default/linux/packages.build
+++ b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/profiles/default/linux/packages.build
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
 
 app-arch/bzip2
 app-arch/gzip
+app-arch/lbzip2
 app-arch/tar
 app-shells/bash
 net-misc/rsync