diff --git a/meta-networking/recipes-connectivity/networkmanager/networkmanager_1.58.0.bb b/meta-networking/recipes-connectivity/networkmanager/networkmanager_1.58.0.bb
index 5099c02972..976f936b0d 100644
--- a/meta-networking/recipes-connectivity/networkmanager/networkmanager_1.58.0.bb
+++ b/meta-networking/recipes-connectivity/networkmanager/networkmanager_1.58.0.bb
@@ -80,9 +80,13 @@ PACKAGECONFIG ??= "readline nss ifupdown dnsmasq nmcli \
 
 inherit ${@bb.utils.contains('PACKAGECONFIG', 'vala', 'vala', '', d)}
 
+# systemdsystemunitdir and systemdsystemgeneratordir both default to an empty
+# string, which makes meson.build assert that systemd was found so it can
+# resolve them from systemd.pc. Both have to be turned off explicitly, not just
+# the unit dir, otherwise configure fails when systemd is not available.
 PACKAGECONFIG[systemd] = "\
     -Dsystemdsystemunitdir=${systemd_unitdir}/system -Dsession_tracking=systemd,\
-    -Dsystemdsystemunitdir=no -Dsystemd_journal=false -Dsession_tracking=no\
+    -Dsystemdsystemunitdir=no -Dsystemdsystemgeneratordir=no -Dsystemd_journal=false -Dsession_tracking=no\
 "
 PACKAGECONFIG[polkit] = "-Dpolkit=true,-Dpolkit=false,polkit"
 PACKAGECONFIG[bluez5] = "-Dbluez5_dun=true,-Dbluez5_dun=false,bluez5"