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 2d051ed4c3..35e7a8fe88 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
@@ -16,7 +16,9 @@ sys-devel/gettext	-git
 
 sys-apps/gptfdisk -icu
 
-# for profile migration
+# for profile migration, needs to be enabled despite the fact it's
+# enabled by default in the ebuild, because berkdb is disabled
+# globally in make.defaults.
 sys-libs/gdbm berkdb
 
 dev-vcs/git -perl -iconv
@@ -54,7 +56,7 @@ net-nds/openldap minimal sasl
 sys-libs/glibc nscd
 
 # disable database build because otherwise it tries to generate a database in /etc
-dev-libs/cyrus-sasl kerberos -berkdb -gdbm
+dev-libs/cyrus-sasl kerberos -gdbm
 
 # don't build manpages for sssd
 sys-auth/sssd -python samba kerberos gssapi ssh sudo selinux
diff --git a/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/profiles/coreos/targets/generic/package.use b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/profiles/coreos/targets/generic/package.use
index 4e67ac1a50..c675c12b17 100644
--- a/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/profiles/coreos/targets/generic/package.use
+++ b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/profiles/coreos/targets/generic/package.use
@@ -14,8 +14,7 @@ sys-apps/smartmontools	-daemon -update-drivedb -systemd
 sys-block/parted        device-mapper
 sys-fs/lvm2		-readline
 sys-libs/ncurses	minimal
-sys-libs/pam		-berkdb audit
-sys-libs/gdbm		berkdb
+sys-libs/pam		audit
 
 # enable journal gateway, bootctl and container features
 sys-apps/systemd audit gnuefi importd http nat