diff --git a/pkgs/build-support/setup-hooks/make-symlinks-relative.sh b/pkgs/build-support/setup-hooks/make-symlinks-relative.sh
index cd9c2eaa2d80..f34353a7617b 100644
--- a/pkgs/build-support/setup-hooks/make-symlinks-relative.sh
+++ b/pkgs/build-support/setup-hooks/make-symlinks-relative.sh
@@ -6,8 +6,8 @@ postFixupHooks+=(_makeSymlinksRelative)
 _makeSymlinksRelative() {
     local symlinkTarget
 
-    if [ -n "${dontRewriteSymlinks-}" ]; then
-        return 0
+    if [ "${dontRewriteSymlinks-}" ] || [ ! -e "$prefix" ]; then
+       return
     fi
 
     while IFS= read -r -d $'\0' f; do