diff --git a/meta/classes/kernel.bbclass b/meta/classes/kernel.bbclass
index 59de148cc8..2ae2dcbe5c 100644
--- a/meta/classes/kernel.bbclass
+++ b/meta/classes/kernel.bbclass
@@ -188,8 +188,12 @@ sysroot_stage_all_append() {
 	sysroot_stage_dir ${D}/kernel ${SYSROOT_DESTDIR}/kernel
 }
 
-
 kernel_do_configure() {
+	# Copy defconfig to .config if .config does not exist. This allows
+	# recipes to manage the .config themselves in do_configure_prepend().
+	if [ -f "${WORKDIR}/defconfig" ] && [ ! -f "${S}/.config" ]; then
+		cp "${WORKDIR}/defconfig" "${S}/.config"
+	fi
         yes '' | oe_runmake oldconfig
 }