diff --git a/config/deb.am b/config/deb.am
index 88679545a594..79063e407fe3 100644
--- a/config/deb.am
+++ b/config/deb.am
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ deb-dkms: deb-local rpm-dkms
 	fakeroot $(ALIEN) --bump=0 --scripts --to-deb --target=$$debarch $$pkg1 || exit 1; \
 	$(RM) $$pkg1
 
-deb-utils: deb-local rpm-utils
+deb-utils: deb-local rpm-utils-initramfs
 	name=${PACKAGE}; \
 	version=${VERSION}-${RELEASE}; \
 	arch=`$(RPM) -qp $${name}-$${version}.src.rpm --qf %{arch} | tail -1`; \
diff --git a/config/rpm.am b/config/rpm.am
index 9dd69ade333e..13bd54a625b0 100644
--- a/config/rpm.am
+++ b/config/rpm.am
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@
 ###############################################################################
 
 PHONY += srpm srpms srpm-kmod srpm-dkms srpm-utils
-PHONY += rpm rpms rpm-kmod rpm-dkms rpm-utils
+PHONY += rpm rpms rpm-kmod rpm-dkms rpm-utils rpm-utils-initramfs
 PHONY += srpm-common rpm-common rpm-local
 
 srpm-kmod srpm-dkms srpm-utils: dist
@@ -35,10 +35,22 @@ rpm-dkms: srpm-dkms
 	$(MAKE) $(AM_MAKEFLAGS) pkg="${PACKAGE}-dkms" \
 		def='${RPM_DEFINE_COMMON} ${RPM_DEFINE_DKMS}' rpm-common
 
+# The rpm-utils and rpm-utils-initramfs targets are identical except for the
+# zfs-initramfs package: rpm-utils never includes it, rpm-utils-initramfs
+# includes it if detected at configure time. The zfs-initramfs package does
+# not work on any known RPM-based distribution and the resulting RPM is only
+# used to create a Debian package. The rpm-utils-initramfs target is not
+# intended to be specified by the user directly, it is provided as a
+# dependency of the deb-utils target.
+
 rpm-utils: srpm-utils
 	$(MAKE) $(AM_MAKEFLAGS) pkg="${PACKAGE}" \
 		def='${RPM_DEFINE_COMMON} ${RPM_DEFINE_UTIL}' rpm-common
 
+rpm-utils-initramfs: srpm-utils
+	$(MAKE) $(AM_MAKEFLAGS) pkg="${PACKAGE}" \
+		def='${RPM_DEFINE_COMMON} ${RPM_DEFINE_UTIL} ${RPM_DEFINE_INITRAMFS}' rpm-common
+
 rpm: rpm-kmod rpm-dkms rpm-utils
 rpms: rpm-kmod rpm-dkms rpm-utils
 
diff --git a/config/zfs-build.m4 b/config/zfs-build.m4
index 2f0aca830598..7754eda3f6a2 100644
--- a/config/zfs-build.m4
+++ b/config/zfs-build.m4
@@ -282,7 +282,6 @@ AC_DEFUN([ZFS_AC_RPM], [
 	AS_IF([test -n "$udevruledir" ], [
 		RPM_DEFINE_UTIL=${RPM_DEFINE_UTIL}' --define "_udevruledir $(udevruledir)"'
 	])
-	RPM_DEFINE_UTIL=${RPM_DEFINE_UTIL}' $(DEFINE_INITRAMFS)'
 	RPM_DEFINE_UTIL=${RPM_DEFINE_UTIL}' $(DEFINE_SYSTEMD)'
 	RPM_DEFINE_UTIL=${RPM_DEFINE_UTIL}' $(DEFINE_PYZFS)'
 	RPM_DEFINE_UTIL=${RPM_DEFINE_UTIL}' $(DEFINE_PAM)'
@@ -542,13 +541,13 @@ AC_DEFUN([ZFS_AC_DEFAULT_PACKAGE], [
 
 	AC_MSG_CHECKING([whether initramfs-tools is available])
 	if test -d /usr/share/initramfs-tools ; then
-		DEFINE_INITRAMFS='--define "_initramfs 1"'
+		RPM_DEFINE_INITRAMFS='--define "_initramfs 1"'
 		AC_MSG_RESULT([yes])
 	else
-		DEFINE_INITRAMFS=''
+		RPM_DEFINE_INITRAMFS=''
 		AC_MSG_RESULT([no])
 	fi
-	AC_SUBST(DEFINE_INITRAMFS)
+	AC_SUBST(RPM_DEFINE_INITRAMFS)
 ])
 
 dnl #