diff --git a/meta/recipes-core/systemd/systemd_256.6.bb b/meta/recipes-core/systemd/systemd_256.6.bb
index 68f15ab065dd5985e4e5cefc2cd005dba5ac9c7f..88ee0c8a7f89726fc9be489f3fc419f9feb37251 100644
--- a/meta/recipes-core/systemd/systemd_256.6.bb
+++ b/meta/recipes-core/systemd/systemd_256.6.bb
@@ -254,7 +254,7 @@ EXTRA_OEMESON += "-Dnobody-user=nobody \
                   -Dsystem-uid-max=999 \
                   -Dsystem-alloc-gid-min=101 \
                   -Dsystem-gid-max=999 \
-                  -Dcreate-log-dirs=false \
+                  ${@ '-Dcreate-log-dirs=false' if oe.types.boolean(d.getVar('VOLATILE_LOG_DIR')) else '' } \
                   ${@bb.utils.contains('DISTRO_FEATURES', 'zeroconf', '-Ddefault-mdns=no -Ddefault-llmnr=no', '', d)} \
                   "