diff --git a/meta/classes/kernel.bbclass b/meta/classes/kernel.bbclass
index c5e054d3ce..aee8a77a9e 100644
--- a/meta/classes/kernel.bbclass
+++ b/meta/classes/kernel.bbclass
@@ -501,6 +501,7 @@ MODULE_TARBALL_BASE_NAME ?= "modules-${PE}-${PV}-${PR}-${MACHINE}-${DATETIME}.tg
 # Don't include the DATETIME variable in the sstate package signatures
 MODULE_TARBALL_BASE_NAME[vardepsexclude] = "DATETIME"
 MODULE_TARBALL_SYMLINK_NAME ?= "modules-${MACHINE}.tgz"
+MODULE_TARBALL_DEPLOY ?= "1"
 
 do_uboot_mkimage() {
 	if test "x${KERNEL_IMAGETYPE}" = "xuImage" ; then 
@@ -529,7 +530,7 @@ addtask uboot_mkimage before do_install after do_compile
 
 kernel_do_deploy() {
 	install -m 0644 ${KERNEL_OUTPUT} ${DEPLOYDIR}/${KERNEL_IMAGE_BASE_NAME}.bin
-	if (grep -q -i -e '^CONFIG_MODULES=y$' .config); then
+	if [ ${MODULE_TARBALL_DEPLOY} = "1" ] && (grep -q -i -e '^CONFIG_MODULES=y$' .config); then
 		tar -cvzf ${DEPLOYDIR}/${MODULE_TARBALL_BASE_NAME} -C ${D} lib
 		ln -sf ${MODULE_TARBALL_BASE_NAME}.bin ${MODULE_TARBALL_SYMLINK_NAME}
 	fi