diff --git a/sys-apps/opentmpfiles/opentmpfiles-0.2.ebuild b/sys-apps/opentmpfiles/opentmpfiles-0.2.ebuild
index 6752d49122245..29060e14d37df 100644
--- a/sys-apps/opentmpfiles/opentmpfiles-0.2.ebuild
+++ b/sys-apps/opentmpfiles/opentmpfiles-0.2.ebuild
@@ -42,6 +42,7 @@ add_service() {
 	local runlevel=$2
 
 	elog "Auto-adding '${initd}' service to your ${runlevel} runlevel"
+	mkdir -p "${EROOT}"etc/runlevels/${runlevel}
 	ln -snf /etc/init.d/${initd} "${EROOT}"etc/runlevels/${runlevel}/${initd}
 }
 
diff --git a/sys-apps/opentmpfiles/opentmpfiles-9999.ebuild b/sys-apps/opentmpfiles/opentmpfiles-9999.ebuild
index 55ea0afa6fa86..212bffd098df1 100644
--- a/sys-apps/opentmpfiles/opentmpfiles-9999.ebuild
+++ b/sys-apps/opentmpfiles/opentmpfiles-9999.ebuild
@@ -42,6 +42,7 @@ add_service() {
 	local runlevel=$2
 
 	elog "Auto-adding '${initd}' service to your ${runlevel} runlevel"
+	mkdir -p "${EROOT}"etc/runlevels/${runlevel}
 	ln -snf /etc/init.d/${initd} "${EROOT}"etc/runlevels/${runlevel}/${initd}
 }