diff --git a/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/coreos-devel/sdk-depends/sdk-depends-0.0.1-r7.ebuild b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/coreos-devel/sdk-depends/sdk-depends-0.0.1-r8.ebuild
similarity index 100%
rename from sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/coreos-devel/sdk-depends/sdk-depends-0.0.1-r7.ebuild
rename to sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/coreos-devel/sdk-depends/sdk-depends-0.0.1-r8.ebuild
diff --git a/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/coreos-devel/sdk-depends/sdk-depends-0.0.1.ebuild b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/coreos-devel/sdk-depends/sdk-depends-0.0.1.ebuild
index 84f564a4d3..38daf8845b 100644
--- a/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/coreos-devel/sdk-depends/sdk-depends-0.0.1.ebuild
+++ b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/coreos-devel/sdk-depends/sdk-depends-0.0.1.ebuild
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ DEPEND="
 	net-misc/curl
 	sys-apps/debianutils
 	sys-apps/iproute2
+	sys-boot/grub
 	sys-devel/crossdev
 	sys-fs/btrfs-progs
 	"
diff --git a/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/profiles/coreos/base/make.defaults b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/profiles/coreos/base/make.defaults
index 7c7f8c84d3..d45b88ea6b 100644
--- a/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/profiles/coreos/base/make.defaults
+++ b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/profiles/coreos/base/make.defaults
@@ -75,3 +75,7 @@ FEATURES="buildpkg ccache clean-logs compressdebug parallel-install splitdebug
 
 # No need to restrict access to build directories in dev environments.
 PORTAGE_WORKDIR_MODE="0755"
+
+# Enable our assorted Grub targets, don't whine about /boot
+GRUB_PLATFORMS="efi-64 pc xen"
+DONT_MOUNT_BOOT=1
diff --git a/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/profiles/coreos/base/package.accept_keywords b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/profiles/coreos/base/package.accept_keywords
index 93ee53fea8..b314039c3e 100644
--- a/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/profiles/coreos/base/package.accept_keywords
+++ b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/profiles/coreos/base/package.accept_keywords
@@ -100,3 +100,8 @@ dev-util/checkbashisms
 # 106 and 107 ebuilds improve systemd integration
 =sys-fs/lvm2-2.02.107
 =sys-block/thin-provisioning-tools-0.3.2
+
+# this version includes the xen target
+=sys-boot/grub-2.02_beta2
+# current stable xen-tools doesn't build without multilib
+=app-emulation/xen-tools-4.4.0-r9
diff --git a/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/profiles/coreos/base/package.use b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/profiles/coreos/base/package.use
index de75e11228..1d71484f59 100644
--- a/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/profiles/coreos/base/package.use
+++ b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/profiles/coreos/base/package.use
@@ -48,3 +48,6 @@ dev-lang/spidermonkey minimal
 
 # do not pull in x11-misc/shared-mime-info
 dev-libs/glib -mime
+
+# keep grub build simple
+sys-boot/grub -multislot -nls