diff --git a/meta/classes-recipe/toolchain-scripts.bbclass b/meta/classes-recipe/toolchain-scripts.bbclass
index d94dcdee39b3..54d05c242c4b 100644
--- a/meta/classes-recipe/toolchain-scripts.bbclass
+++ b/meta/classes-recipe/toolchain-scripts.bbclass
@@ -63,6 +63,9 @@ toolchain_create_sdk_env_script () {
 	echo "export PATH=$sdkpathnative$bindir:$sdkpathnative$sbindir:$sdkpathnative$base_bindir:$sdkpathnative$base_sbindir:$sdkpathnative$bindir/../${HOST_SYS}/bin:$sdkpathnative$bindir/${TARGET_SYS}"$EXTRAPATH':"$PATH"' >> $script
 	echo 'export PKG_CONFIG_SYSROOT_DIR=$SDKTARGETSYSROOT' >> $script
 	echo 'export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=$SDKTARGETSYSROOT'"$libdir"'/pkgconfig:$SDKTARGETSYSROOT'"$prefix"'/share/pkgconfig' >> $script
+	# pkg-config here answers for the target, which is wrong for the host
+	# tools the kernel build compiles. Honoured by kernels using '?='.
+	echo 'export HOSTPKG_CONFIG="env -u PKG_CONFIG_SYSROOT_DIR -u PKG_CONFIG_PATH -u PKG_CONFIG_LIBDIR pkg-config"' >> $script
 	echo 'export CONFIG_SITE=${SDKPATH}/site-config-'"${multimach_target_sys}" >> $script
 	echo "export OECORE_NATIVE_SYSROOT=\"$sdkpathnative\"" >> $script
 	echo 'export OECORE_TARGET_SYSROOT="$SDKTARGETSYSROOT"' >> $script
diff --git a/meta/lib/oeqa/sdk/cases/kmod.py b/meta/lib/oeqa/sdk/cases/kmod.py
index 1be23e994fd2..1d73f076e552 100644
--- a/meta/lib/oeqa/sdk/cases/kmod.py
+++ b/meta/lib/oeqa/sdk/cases/kmod.py
@@ -26,8 +26,11 @@ class KernelModuleTest(OESDKTestCase):
         parallel_make = "-j %d" % (pmv) if pmv else ""
 
         self.ensure_target_package("kernel-devsrc")
+        # the kernel assigns HOSTPKG_CONFIG with '=', so it has to come from
+        # the make command line, as kernel.bbclass does
+        host_pkg_config = 'HOSTPKG_CONFIG="env -u PKG_CONFIG_SYSROOT_DIR -u PKG_CONFIG_PATH -u PKG_CONFIG_LIBDIR pkg-config"'
         # These targets need to be built before kernel modules can be built.
-        self._run("make %s -C $OECORE_TARGET_SYSROOT/usr/src/kernel prepare scripts" % (parallel_make))
+        self._run("make %s %s -C $OECORE_TARGET_SYSROOT/usr/src/kernel prepare scripts" % (parallel_make, host_pkg_config))
 
         with tempfile.TemporaryDirectory(prefix="cryptodev", dir=self.tc.sdk_dir) as testdir:
             git_url = "https://github.com/cryptodev-linux/cryptodev-linux"
@@ -39,5 +42,5 @@ class KernelModuleTest(OESDKTestCase):
             self.assertTrue(os.path.isdir(sourcedir))
             subprocess.check_output(["git", "-C", sourcedir, "checkout", git_sha], stderr=subprocess.STDOUT)
 
-            self._run("make -C %s V=1 KERNEL_DIR=$OECORE_TARGET_SYSROOT/usr/src/kernel" % sourcedir)
+            self._run("make -C %s V=1 %s KERNEL_DIR=$OECORE_TARGET_SYSROOT/usr/src/kernel" % (sourcedir, host_pkg_config))
             self.check_elf(os.path.join(sourcedir, "cryptodev.ko"))