diff --git a/network/keepalived/keepalived.conf b/network/keepalived/keepalived.conf
index dc33214fd..70b4c632f 100644
--- a/network/keepalived/keepalived.conf
+++ b/network/keepalived/keepalived.conf
@@ -20,3 +20,6 @@ if pkginstalled -f ipvsadm2 ; then
 else
 	var_append confopt ' ' "--disable-lvs"
 fi
+
+# use the sanitized linux kernel headers
+var_append extraconfopt ' ' "--with-kernel-dir=$( pkgprefix -r includedir linux-header )"