diff --git a/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/profiles/coreos/targets/generic/package.use.force b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/profiles/coreos/targets/generic/package.use.force
deleted file mode 100644
index 7b3b0d7387..0000000000
--- a/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/profiles/coreos/targets/generic/package.use.force
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,4 +0,0 @@
-# We don't have a separate /{bin,lib} and /usr/{bin,lib}
-sys-apps/coreutils -split-usr
-sys-apps/systemd -split-usr
-sys-apps/shadow -split-usr
diff --git a/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/profiles/coreos/targets/generic/use.force b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/profiles/coreos/targets/generic/use.force
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..f29fb18c73
--- /dev/null
+++ b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/profiles/coreos/targets/generic/use.force
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+# We don't have a separate /{bin,lib} and /usr/{bin,lib}. But the base
+# profile in portage-stable forces split-usr, so here we unforce it
+# and in use.mask we mask it.
+-split-usr
diff --git a/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/profiles/coreos/targets/generic/use.mask b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/profiles/coreos/targets/generic/use.mask
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..9a467dab41
--- /dev/null
+++ b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/profiles/coreos/targets/generic/use.mask
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+# We don't have a separate /{bin,lib} and /usr/{bin,lib}. But the base
+# profile in portage-stable forces split-usr, so in use.force we
+# unforce it and here we mask it.
+split-usr