diff --git a/package/systemd/systemd.mk b/package/systemd/systemd.mk
index 36ef704c7..92bdbcc25 100644
--- a/package/systemd/systemd.mk
+++ b/package/systemd/systemd.mk
@@ -15,7 +15,8 @@ SYSTEMD_DEPENDENCIES = \
 	libcap \
 	dbus \
 	util-linux \
-	kmod
+	kmod \
+	host-gperf
 
 # Make sure that systemd will always be built after busybox so that we have
 # a consistent init setup between two builds