diff --git a/meta/lib/oe/rootfs.py b/meta/lib/oe/rootfs.py
index 6b56adaf03..14befac8fa 100644
--- a/meta/lib/oe/rootfs.py
+++ b/meta/lib/oe/rootfs.py
@@ -362,11 +362,12 @@ class Rootfs(object, metaclass=ABCMeta):
 
             versioned_modules_dir = os.path.join(self.image_rootfs, modules_dir, kernel_ver)
 
-            bb.utils.mkdirhier(versioned_modules_dir)
-
-            bb.note("Running depmodwrapper for %s ..." % versioned_modules_dir)
-            if self._exec_shell_cmd(['depmodwrapper', '-a', '-b', self.image_rootfs, kernel_ver, kernel_package_name]):
-                bb.fatal("Kernel modules dependency generation failed")
+            if os.path.exists(versioned_modules_dir):
+                bb.note("Running depmodwrapper for %s ..." % versioned_modules_dir)
+                if self._exec_shell_cmd(['depmodwrapper', '-a', '-b', self.image_rootfs, kernel_ver, kernel_package_name]):
+                    bb.fatal("Kernel modules dependency generation failed")
+            else:
+                bb.note("Not running depmodwrapper for %s since directory does not exist" % versioned_modules_dir)
 
     """
     Create devfs: