diff --git a/Makefile.inc1 b/Makefile.inc1
--- a/Makefile.inc1
+++ b/Makefile.inc1
@@ -1475,7 +1475,12 @@
 		    done); \
 	fi; \
 	${INSTALLTMP_COPY_HOST_TOOL} $$libs $$progs ${INSTALLTMP}
+	# On non-FreeBSD systems, there's no point copying locales here
+	# since we aren't going to overwrite them anyway.  This avoids
+	# failing if /usr/share/locale has odd modes (e.g., openSUSE).
+.if ${.MAKE.OS} == "FreeBSD"
 	cp -R $${PATH_LOCALE:-"/usr/share/locale"} ${INSTALLTMP}/locale
+.endif
 .if defined(NO_ROOT)
 	-mkdir -p ${METALOG:H}
 	echo "#${MTREE_MAGIC}" > ${METALOG}