diff --git a/meta-isar/conf/distro/raspios-bullseye.conf b/meta-isar/conf/distro/raspios-bullseye.conf
index 2515f0fd..a362289d 100644
--- a/meta-isar/conf/distro/raspios-bullseye.conf
+++ b/meta-isar/conf/distro/raspios-bullseye.conf
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ DISTRO_APT_SOURCES:arm64 ?= "conf/distro/raspios-bullseye-64.list"
 
 DISTRO_BOOTSTRAP_KEYS = "http://raspbian.raspberrypi.org/raspbian.public.key;sha256sum=ca59cd4f2bcbc3a1d41ba6815a02a8dc5c175467a59bd87edeac458f4a5345de"
 DISTRO_BOOTSTRAP_KEYS:arm64 = ""
+DISTRO_BOOTSTRAP_BASE_PACKAGES:append = " usrmerge"
 
 DISTRO_KERNELS ?= "kernel kernel7 kernel7l kernel8"
 
diff --git a/meta-isar/conf/distro/ubuntu-common.inc b/meta-isar/conf/distro/ubuntu-common.inc
index d3374baa..88a3b4f0 100644
--- a/meta-isar/conf/distro/ubuntu-common.inc
+++ b/meta-isar/conf/distro/ubuntu-common.inc
@@ -16,6 +16,10 @@ BOOTSTRAP_KEY = "file://${LAYERDIR_isar}/conf/distro/ubuntu.public.key;sha256sum
 DISTRO_BOOTSTRAP_KEYS += "${BOOTSTRAP_KEY}"
 HOST_DISTRO_BOOTSTRAP_KEYS += "${BOOTSTRAP_KEY}"
 
+# from noble on this package does not exist anymore, before it is needed
+DISTRO_BOOTSTRAP_BASE_PACKAGES:append:focal = " usrmerge"
+DISTRO_BOOTSTRAP_BASE_PACKAGES:append:jammy = " usrmerge"
+
 # kernel package name is linux-image-generic in Ubuntu
 KERNEL_NAME = "generic"
 
diff --git a/meta/conf/distro/debian-common.conf b/meta/conf/distro/debian-common.conf
index b5d8aa9a..8da17d6f 100644
--- a/meta/conf/distro/debian-common.conf
+++ b/meta/conf/distro/debian-common.conf
@@ -39,6 +39,10 @@ SYSTEMD_BOOTLOADER_INSTALL:buster = "systemd:${DISTRO_ARCH}"
 COMPAT_DISTRO_ARCH:amd64 = "i386"
 COMPAT_DISTRO_ARCH:arm64 = "armhf"
 
+# from debian 12 on, this is referenced by init-system-helpers, before it is needed
+DISTRO_BOOTSTRAP_BASE_PACKAGES:append:buster = " usrmerge"
+DISTRO_BOOTSTRAP_BASE_PACKAGES:append:bullseye = " usrmerge"
+
 # snapshot mirror for reproducible builds
 DISTRO_APT_SNAPSHOT_PREMIRROR ??= " \
     deb.debian.org/(debian-security)/? snapshot.debian.org/archive/\1/${@d.getVarFlag('ISAR_APT_SNAPSHOT_DATE', 'security')}\n \
diff --git a/meta/recipes-core/isar-mmdebstrap/isar-mmdebstrap.inc b/meta/recipes-core/isar-mmdebstrap/isar-mmdebstrap.inc
index 01ed1e59..931f6f13 100644
--- a/meta/recipes-core/isar-mmdebstrap/isar-mmdebstrap.inc
+++ b/meta/recipes-core/isar-mmdebstrap/isar-mmdebstrap.inc
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ inherit deb-dl-dir
 
 FILESEXTRAPATHS:append = ":${LAYERDIR_core}/recipes-core/isar-bootstrap/files"
 
-DISTRO_BOOTSTRAP_BASE_PACKAGES += "locales apt usrmerge"
+DISTRO_BOOTSTRAP_BASE_PACKAGES += "locales apt"
 DISTRO_BOOTSTRAP_BASE_PACKAGES:append:https-support = " ca-certificates"
 
 BOOTSTRAP_TMPDIR = "${WORKDIR}/tempdir"