diff --git a/apps/system/components/.cargo/config.toml b/apps/system/components/.cargo/config.toml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..37a93d6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/apps/system/components/.cargo/config.toml
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+[env]
+# Pathname to seL4 kernel for xml files and (eventually) tools scripts,
+# defaults to "sel4" if not set
+SEL4_DIR = { value = "../../../../../kernel", relative = true }
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/apps/system/components/kata-os-common/src/sel4-sys/Cargo.toml b/apps/system/components/kata-os-common/src/sel4-sys/Cargo.toml
index 4055aea..a0e268b 100644
--- a/apps/system/components/kata-os-common/src/sel4-sys/Cargo.toml
+++ b/apps/system/components/kata-os-common/src/sel4-sys/Cargo.toml
@@ -17,9 +17,6 @@ build = "build.rs"
 
 # NB: used by build.rs
 [env]
-# Pathname to seL4 kernel for xml files and (eventually) tools scripts,
-# defaults to "sel4"
-SEL4_DIR = "sel4"
 # Name of python3 interpreter executable, defaults to "python3"
 PYTHON = "python3"
 
diff --git a/apps/system/components/kata-os-common/src/sel4-sys/seL4 b/apps/system/components/kata-os-common/src/sel4-sys/seL4
deleted file mode 120000
index ed7725c..0000000
--- a/apps/system/components/kata-os-common/src/sel4-sys/seL4
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-../../../../../../../../kernel
\ No newline at end of file