diff --git a/meta/recipes-core/busybox/busybox.inc b/meta/recipes-core/busybox/busybox.inc
index 2f269534bb..8b38c1aaa8 100644
--- a/meta/recipes-core/busybox/busybox.inc
+++ b/meta/recipes-core/busybox/busybox.inc
@@ -274,25 +274,28 @@ do_install () {
 
         ln -sf /dev/null ${D}${systemd_unitdir}/system/syslog.service
     fi
+
+    # Remove the sysvinit specific configuration file for systemd systems to avoid confusion
+    if ${@base_contains('DISTRO_FEATURES', 'sysvinit', 'false', 'true', d)}; then
+	rm ${D}${sysconfdir}/syslog-startup.conf.${BPN}
+    fi
 }
 
 inherit update-alternatives
 
 ALTERNATIVE_PRIORITY = "50"
 
-ALTERNATIVE_${PN}-syslog = "syslog-startup-conf"
-
 python () {
     if 'sysvinit' in d.getVar("DISTRO_FEATURES", True).split():
         pn = d.getVar('PN', True)
         d.appendVar('ALTERNATIVE_%s-syslog' % (pn), ' syslog-init')
         d.setVarFlag('ALTERNATIVE_LINK_NAME', 'syslog-init', '%s/init.d/syslog' % (d.getVar('sysconfdir', True)))
         d.setVarFlag('ALTERNATIVE_TARGET', 'syslog-init', '%s/init.d/syslog.%s' % (d.getVar('sysconfdir', True), d.getVar('BPN', True)))
+        d.appendVar('ALTERNATIVE_%s-syslog' % (pn), ' syslog-startup-conf')
+        d.setVarFlag('ALTERNATIVE_LINK_NAME', 'syslog-startup-conf', '%s/syslog-startup.conf' % (d.getVar('sysconfdir', True)))
+        d.setVarFlag('ALTERNATIVE_TARGET', 'syslog-startup-conf', '%s/syslog-startup.conf.%s' % (d.getVar('sysconfdir', True), d.getVar('BPN', True)))
 }
 
-ALTERNATIVE_LINK_NAME[syslog-startup-conf] = "${sysconfdir}/syslog-startup.conf"
-ALTERNATIVE_TARGET[syslog-startup-conf] = "${sysconfdir}/syslog-startup.conf.${BPN}"
-
 python do_package_prepend () {
     # We need to load the full set of busybox provides from the /etc/busybox.links
     # Use this to see the update-alternatives with the right information