diff --git a/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/eclass/cros-kernel/x86_64_defconfig_boot b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/eclass/cros-kernel/x86_64_defconfig_boot
index 97828a2965..4103722600 100644
--- a/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/eclass/cros-kernel/x86_64_defconfig_boot
+++ b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/eclass/cros-kernel/x86_64_defconfig_boot
@@ -171,7 +171,7 @@ CONFIG_MM_OWNER=y
 # CONFIG_SYSFS_DEPRECATED is not set
 CONFIG_RELAY=y
 CONFIG_BLK_DEV_INITRD=y
-CONFIG_INITRAMFS_SOURCE="XXXXX"
+CONFIG_INITRAMFS_SOURCE="bootengine.cpio"
 CONFIG_INITRAMFS_ROOT_UID=0
 CONFIG_INITRAMFS_ROOT_GID=0
 CONFIG_RD_GZIP=y
diff --git a/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/eclass/cros-kernel2.eclass b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/eclass/cros-kernel2.eclass
index 9de768c567..117a018a72 100644
--- a/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/eclass/cros-kernel2.eclass
+++ b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/eclass/cros-kernel2.eclass
@@ -278,10 +278,10 @@ cros-kernel2_src_configure() {
 		fi
 	fi
 
-	# if this is the boot kernel, set up the initrd location
+	# if this is the boot kernel, copy the cpio initrd to the output build
+	# directory so we can tack it onto the kernel image itself.
 	if [ "$(get_boot_kernel)" = "true" ]; then
-		cp "${ROOT}"/usr/share/bootengine/bootengine.cpio "${S}" || die "copy of dracut cpio failed."
-		sed -i -e 's/XXXXX/\/build\/amd64-generic\/usr\/share\/bootengine\/bootengine\.cpio/g' "$(get_build_cfg)" || die "sed failed"
+		cp "${ROOT}"/usr/share/bootengine/bootengine.cpio "$(cros-workon_get_build_dir)" || die "copy of dracut cpio failed."
 	fi
 
 	# Use default for any options not explitly set in splitconfig