diff --git a/etc/rc.d/hostid b/etc/rc.d/hostid
index 6673aa012391..9a6d39f9fcd6 100644
--- a/etc/rc.d/hostid
+++ b/etc/rc.d/hostid
@@ -56,7 +56,8 @@ hostid_set()
 
 hostid_hardware()
 {
-	uuid=`kenv smbios.system.uuid 2>/dev/null | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]'`
+	uuid=`kenv smbios.system.uuid 2>/dev/null`
+	uuid=`csh -c 'echo -n ${*:al}' "$uuid"`
 	x="[0-9a-f]"
 	y=$x$x$x$x
 	case "${uuid}" in