diff --git a/build/conf/local.conf.sample b/build/conf/local.conf.sample
index 9cdbe59d92..5e55f92772 100644
--- a/build/conf/local.conf.sample
+++ b/build/conf/local.conf.sample
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ DISTRO ?= "poky"
 # For bleeding edge / experimental / unstable package versions
 # DISTRO ?= "poky-bleeding"
 
-# IMAGE_FEATURES configuration of the generated images 
+# EXTRA_IMAGE_FEATURES allows extra packages to be added to the generated images 
 # (Some of these are automatically added to certain image types)
 # "dbg-pkgs"     - add -dbg packages for all installed packages
 #                  (adds symbol information for debugging/profiling)
@@ -50,13 +50,13 @@ DISTRO ?= "poky"
 # There are other application targets too, see meta/classes/poky-image.bbclass 
 # and meta/packages/tasks/task-poky.bb for more details.
 
-IMAGE_FEATURES = "tools-debug tools-profile tools-testapps debug-tweaks"
+EXTRA_IMAGE_FEATURES = "tools-debug tools-profile tools-testapps debug-tweaks"
 
 # The default IMAGE_FEATURES above are too large for the mx31phy and 
 # c700/c750 machines which have limited space. The code below limits
 # the default features for those machines.
-IMAGE_FEATURES_c7x0 = "tools-testapps debug-tweaks"
-IMAGE_FEATURES_mx31phy = "tools-testapps debug-tweaks"
+EXTRA_IMAGE_FEATURES_c7x0 = "tools-testapps debug-tweaks"
+EXTRA_IMAGE_FEATURES_mx31phy = "tools-testapps debug-tweaks"
 
 # A list of packaging systems used in generated images
 # The first package type listed will be used for rootfs generation
diff --git a/meta/conf/bitbake.conf b/meta/conf/bitbake.conf
index 49df8869a4..75a69f6dac 100644
--- a/meta/conf/bitbake.conf
+++ b/meta/conf/bitbake.conf
@@ -588,6 +588,7 @@ MACHINE_EXTRA_RDEPENDS ?= ""
 MACHINE_EXTRA_RRECOMMENDS ?= ""
 MACHINE_ESSENTIAL_EXTRA_RDEPENDS ?= ""
 MACHINE_ESSENTIAL_EXTRA_RRECOMMENDS ?= ""
+IMAGE_FEATURES += "${EXTRA_IMAGE_FEATURES}"
 
 COMBINED_FEATURES = "\
     ${@base_both_contain("DISTRO_FEATURES", "MACHINE_FEATURES", "alsa", d)} \