diff --git a/pkg/fedora/kernel-surface/kernel-surface.spec b/pkg/fedora/kernel-surface/kernel-surface.spec
index f4259d7c2..6f9e23492 100755
--- a/pkg/fedora/kernel-surface/kernel-surface.spec
+++ b/pkg/fedora/kernel-surface/kernel-surface.spec
@@ -131,6 +131,9 @@ against the kernel-surface package.
 %prep
 %autosetup -S git -n linux-fedora-%{kernel_tag}
 
+# Fix missing Makefile.rhelver
+touch Makefile.rhelver
+
 scripts/kconfig/merge_config.sh         \
 	fedora/configs/%{kernel_config} \
 	%{SOURCE1}                      \
@@ -168,9 +171,6 @@ pathfix.py -i "%{__python3} %{py3_shbang_opts}" -p -n \
 
 %build
 
-# Fix missing Makefile.rhelver
-touch Makefile.rhelver
-
 # This ensures build-ids are unique to allow parallel debuginfo
 perl -p -i -e "s/^CONFIG_BUILD_SALT.*/CONFIG_BUILD_SALT=\"%{kernel_name}\"/" .config