diff --git a/package/skeleton-init-systemd/legacy.conf b/package/skeleton-init-systemd/legacy.conf
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..0a5393408c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/package/skeleton-init-systemd/legacy.conf
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+# Create legacy directories for buildroot
+# This is a subset of systemd's legacy.conf
+
+d /run/lock 0755 root root -
+d /run/lock/subsys 0755 root root -
+
+L /var/lock - - - - ../run/lock
diff --git a/package/skeleton-init-systemd/skeleton-init-systemd.mk b/package/skeleton-init-systemd/skeleton-init-systemd.mk
index 5d6b716f7a..1e212cc2f7 100644
--- a/package/skeleton-init-systemd/skeleton-init-systemd.mk
+++ b/package/skeleton-init-systemd/skeleton-init-systemd.mk
@@ -62,6 +62,7 @@ define SKELETON_INIT_SYSTEMD_INSTALL_TARGET_CMDS
 	mkdir -p $(TARGET_DIR)/srv
 	mkdir -p $(TARGET_DIR)/var
 	ln -s ../run $(TARGET_DIR)/var/run
+	install -D -m644 $(SKELETON_INIT_SYSTEMD_PKGDIR)/legacy.conf $(TARGET_DIR)/usr/lib/tmpfiles.d/legacy.conf
 	$(SKELETON_INIT_SYSTEMD_ROOT_RO_OR_RW)
 endef