diff --git a/meta/recipes-core/systemd/systemd_249.5.bb b/meta/recipes-core/systemd/systemd_249.5.bb
index 8bdc0ca028..2f019a4b1f 100644
--- a/meta/recipes-core/systemd/systemd_249.5.bb
+++ b/meta/recipes-core/systemd/systemd_249.5.bb
@@ -275,7 +275,10 @@ do_install() {
 		# which is expected to be empty.
 		rm -rf ${D}${localstatedir}/log
 	else
-		chown root:systemd-journal ${D}${localstatedir}/log/journal
+		# The useradd class is a no-op in the nativesdk case, so chown will fail
+		if [ "${PN}" != "nativesdk-systemd" ]; then
+			chown root:systemd-journal ${D}${localstatedir}/log/journal
+		fi
 
 		# journal-remote creates this at start
 		rm -rf ${D}${localstatedir}/log/journal/remote
@@ -319,7 +322,10 @@ do_install() {
 	if ${@bb.utils.contains('PACKAGECONFIG', 'polkit', 'true', 'false', d)}; then
 		if [ -d ${D}${datadir}/polkit-1/rules.d ]; then
 			chmod 700 ${D}${datadir}/polkit-1/rules.d
-			chown polkitd:root ${D}${datadir}/polkit-1/rules.d
+			# The useradd class is a no-op in the nativesdk case, so chown will fail
+			if [ "${PN}" != "nativesdk-systemd" ]; then
+				chown polkitd:root ${D}${datadir}/polkit-1/rules.d
+			fi
 		fi
 	fi