diff --git a/meta/classes-recipe/kernel.bbclass b/meta/classes-recipe/kernel.bbclass
index 89badd90f18..e328151cb59 100644
--- a/meta/classes-recipe/kernel.bbclass
+++ b/meta/classes-recipe/kernel.bbclass
@@ -184,7 +184,12 @@ do_clean[cleandirs] += " ${S} ${STAGING_KERNEL_DIR} ${B} ${STAGING_KERNEL_BUILDD
 python do_symlink_kernsrc () {
     s = d.getVar("S")
     kernsrc = d.getVar("STAGING_KERNEL_DIR")
-    if s != kernsrc:
+    if os.path.islink(s):
+        _s = os.readlink(s)
+    else:
+        _s = s
+
+    if _s != kernsrc:
         bb.utils.mkdirhier(kernsrc)
         bb.utils.remove(kernsrc, recurse=True)
         if s[-1] == '/':