diff --git a/cmd/control/console_init.go b/cmd/control/console_init.go
index a68680c5..0a205727 100644
--- a/cmd/control/console_init.go
+++ b/cmd/control/console_init.go
@@ -75,10 +75,6 @@ func consoleInitAction(c *cli.Context) error {
 		log.Error(err)
 	}
 
-	if err := writeOsRelease(); err != nil {
-		log.Error(err)
-	}
-
 	for _, link := range []symlink{
 		{"/var/lib/rancher/engine/docker", "/usr/bin/docker"},
 		{"/var/lib/rancher/engine/docker-containerd", "/usr/bin/docker-containerd"},
@@ -87,6 +83,8 @@ func consoleInitAction(c *cli.Context) error {
 		{"/var/lib/rancher/engine/dockerd", "/usr/bin/dockerd"},
 		{"/var/lib/rancher/engine/docker-proxy", "/usr/bin/docker-proxy"},
 		{"/var/lib/rancher/engine/docker-runc", "/usr/bin/docker-runc"},
+		{"/usr/share/rancher/os-release", "/usr/lib/os-release"},
+		{"/usr/share/rancher/os-release", "/etc/os-release"},
 	} {
 		syscall.Unlink(link.newname)
 		if err := os.Symlink(link.oldname, link.newname); err != nil {
@@ -212,33 +210,6 @@ func modifySshdConfig() error {
 	return ioutil.WriteFile("/etc/ssh/sshd_config", []byte(sshdConfigString), 0644)
 }
 
-func writeOsRelease() error {
-	idLike := "busybox"
-	if osRelease, err := ioutil.ReadFile("/etc/os-release"); err == nil {
-		for _, line := range strings.Split(string(osRelease), "\n") {
-			if strings.HasPrefix(line, "ID_LIKE") {
-				split := strings.Split(line, "ID_LIKE")
-				if len(split) > 1 {
-					idLike = split[1]
-				}
-			}
-		}
-	}
-
-	return ioutil.WriteFile("/etc/os-release", []byte(fmt.Sprintf(`
-NAME="RancherOS"
-VERSION=%s
-ID=rancheros
-ID_LIKE=%s
-VERSION_ID=%s
-PRETTY_NAME="RancherOS %s"
-HOME_URL=
-SUPPORT_URL=
-BUG_REPORT_URL=
-BUILD_ID=
-`, config.VERSION, idLike, config.VERSION, config.VERSION)), 0644)
-}
-
 func setupSSH(cfg *config.CloudConfig) error {
 	for _, keyType := range []string{"rsa", "dsa", "ecdsa", "ed25519"} {
 		outputFile := fmt.Sprintf("/etc/ssh/ssh_host_%s_key", keyType)
diff --git a/os-config.tpl.yml b/os-config.tpl.yml
index c17d53d6..2883a8ce 100644
--- a/os-config.tpl.yml
+++ b/os-config.tpl.yml
@@ -140,6 +140,7 @@ rancher:
       - /usr/bin/ros:/usr/bin/cloud-init-save:ro
       - /usr/bin/ros:/usr/sbin/netconf:ro
       - /usr/bin/ros:/usr/sbin/wait-for-docker:ro
+      - /usr/share/rancher:/usr/share/rancher:ro
     console:
       image: {{.OS_REPO}}/os-console:{{.VERSION}}{{.SUFFIX}}
       command: ros console-init
diff --git a/scripts/clean b/scripts/clean
index 8c6b0034..e86582e2 100755
--- a/scripts/clean
+++ b/scripts/clean
@@ -2,4 +2,4 @@
 set -e
 
 cd $(dirname $0)/..
-rm -rf build dist bin images/*/build
+rm -rf build dist bin images/*/build state
diff --git a/scripts/package-rootfs b/scripts/package-rootfs
index cba25bf8..aa532524 100755
--- a/scripts/package-rootfs
+++ b/scripts/package-rootfs
@@ -22,6 +22,25 @@ if [ "$(docker info | grep 'Storage Driver: ' | sed 's/Storage Driver: //')" !=
     exit 0
 fi
 
+mkdir -p ${INITRD_DIR}/usr/share/rancher/
+cat <<HERE > ${INITRD_DIR}/usr/share/rancher/os-release
+NAME="RancherOS"
+VERSION=${VERSION}
+ID=rancheros
+ID_LIKE=
+VERSION_ID=${VERSION}
+PRETTY_NAME="RancherOS ${VERSION}"
+HOME_URL="http://rancher.com/rancher-os/"
+SUPPORT_URL="https://forums.rancher.com/c/rancher-os"
+BUG_REPORT_URL="https://github.com/rancher/os/issues"
+BUILD_ID=
+HERE
+
+# need to make relative links to the os-release file
+cd ${INITRD_DIR}/usr/lib
+ln -s ../share/rancher/os-release os-release
+cd $(dirname $0)/..
+
 DFS=$(docker run -d --privileged -v /lib/modules/$(uname -r):/lib/modules/$(uname -r) ${DFS_IMAGE}${SUFFIX} ${DFS_ARGS})
 trap "docker rm -fv ${DFS_ARCH} ${DFS}" EXIT
 docker exec -i ${DFS} docker load < ${INITRD_DIR}/usr/share/ros/images.tar