diff --git a/release/Makefile b/release/Makefile
--- a/release/Makefile
+++ b/release/Makefile
@@ -137,7 +137,7 @@
 	sh ${WORLDDIR}/usr.sbin/etcupdate/etcupdate.sh extract -B \
 	    -m "${MAKE}" -M "TARGET_ARCH=${TARGET_ARCH} TARGET=${TARGET}" \
 	    -s ${WORLDDIR} -d "${.OBJDIR}/${DISTDIR}/base/var/db/etcupdate" \
-	    -L /dev/null -N
+	    -L /dev/stdout -N
 	echo "./var/db/etcupdate type=dir uname=root gname=wheel mode=0755" >> ${.OBJDIR}/${DISTDIR}/base.meta
 	sed -n 's,^\.,./var/db/etcupdate/current,p' \
 	    ${.OBJDIR}/${DISTDIR}/base/var/db/etcupdate/current/METALOG | \
diff --git a/release/tools/vmimage.subr b/release/tools/vmimage.subr
--- a/release/tools/vmimage.subr
+++ b/release/tools/vmimage.subr
@@ -60,7 +60,8 @@
 	mkdir -p ${DESTDIR}/var/db/etcupdate
 	etcupdate extract -B \
 		-M "TARGET=${TARGET} TARGET_ARCH=${TARGET_ARCH}" \
-		-s ${WORLDDIR} -d ${DESTDIR}/var/db/etcupdate
+		-s ${WORLDDIR} -d ${DESTDIR}/var/db/etcupdate \
+		-L /dev/stdout
 
 	echo '# Custom /etc/fstab for FreeBSD VM images' \
 		> ${DESTDIR}/etc/fstab