diff --git a/classes/sdcard_image.bbclass b/classes/sdcard_image.bbclass
index 4ebc9986..45dc54d5 100644
--- a/classes/sdcard_image.bbclass
+++ b/classes/sdcard_image.bbclass
@@ -114,7 +114,8 @@ IMAGE_CMD_sdimg () {
 	# should use fdisk info
 	echo "Creating ext3 image"
 	touch ${WORKDIR}/${IMAGE_NAME}.rootfs.ext3
-	genext2fs -b $FS_SIZE_BLOCKS -d ${IMAGE_ROOTFS} ${WORKDIR}/${IMAGE_NAME}.rootfs.ext3
+	# lots of small files, so use 8k per inode, not 64k
+	genext2fs -i 8192 -b $FS_SIZE_BLOCKS -d ${IMAGE_ROOTFS} ${WORKDIR}/${IMAGE_NAME}.rootfs.ext3
 	tune2fs -L ${IMAGE_NAME} -j ${WORKDIR}/${IMAGE_NAME}.rootfs.ext3
 
 	dd if=${WORKDIR}/${IMAGE_NAME}.rootfs.ext3 of=${LOOPDEV_FS}