diff --git a/network/samba/samba.conf b/network/samba/samba.conf
index 58680812c..8a8f1a302 100644
--- a/network/samba/samba.conf
+++ b/network/samba/samba.conf
@@ -23,6 +23,10 @@ if [ $prefix_auto = 1 ] ; then
 	var_append extraconfopt ' ' "--with-rootsbindir=/sbin"
 fi
 
+# set sysconfdir to '/etc/samba' in the case it was autoconfigured to '/etc'
+[ "$sysconfdir" = "$root/etc" ] && \
+	sysconfdir=$root/etc/samba
+
 var_append extraconfopt " " "--with-smbmount --with-cifsmount --with-automount \
 --with-syslog --with-configdir=$sysconfdir \
 --with-privatedir=$sysconfdir/private --with-codepagedir=$sysconfdir/codepages \