diff --git a/meta/recipes-core/systemd/systemd_261.2.bb b/meta/recipes-core/systemd/systemd_261.2.bb
index b295a69548..56c33ef157 100644
--- a/meta/recipes-core/systemd/systemd_261.2.bb
+++ b/meta/recipes-core/systemd/systemd_261.2.bb
@@ -126,7 +126,11 @@ PACKAGECONFIG[default-compression-lz4] = "-Dlz4=true -Ddefault-compression=lz4,,
 PACKAGECONFIG[default-compression-xz] = "-Dxz=true -Ddefault-compression=xz,,xz"
 PACKAGECONFIG[default-compression-zstd] = "-Dzstd=true -Ddefault-compression=zstd,,zstd"
 PACKAGECONFIG[efi] = "-Defi=true -Dbootloader=enabled,-Defi=false -Dbootloader=disabled,python3-pyelftools-native"
-PACKAGECONFIG[elfutils] = "-Delfutils=enabled,-Delfutils=disabled,elfutils"
+# libdw/libelf are dlopen()ed, but upstream marks them as "suggested" in the
+# .note.dlopen metadata so they end up in RSUGGESTS, which is not installed.
+# systemd-coredump cannot symbolicate backtraces without libdw, so promote
+# these to RRECOMMENDS explicitly.
+PACKAGECONFIG[elfutils] = "-Delfutils=enabled,-Delfutils=disabled,elfutils,,libdw libelf"
 PACKAGECONFIG[fido] = "-Dlibfido2=enabled,-Dlibfido2=disabled,libfido2-initial"
 PACKAGECONFIG[firstboot] = "-Dfirstboot=true,-Dfirstboot=false"
 PACKAGECONFIG[repart] = "-Drepart=enabled,-Drepart=disabled"