diff --git a/build.sh b/build.sh
index 0f3091fb17c4a1be674ae60d4233fc7ccc75bc3e..4730866023845420a364e771833e778bfda50ff1 100755
--- a/build.sh
+++ b/build.sh
@@ -146,6 +146,13 @@ build()
   local variant="$1"
   if $build_viewer
   then
+    if [ "$arch" = "Linux" ]
+    then
+        ## something about the additional_packages mechanism messes up buildscripts results.py
+        ## since we don't care about those packages on Linux, just zero it out, yes - a HACK
+        export additional_packages=""
+    fi
+
     "$autobuild" build --quiet --no-configure -c $variant
     build_ok=$?
 
@@ -206,13 +213,6 @@ fi
 # load autobuild provided shell functions and variables
 eval "$("$autobuild" source_environment)"
 
-if [ "$arch" = "Linux" ]
-then
-    ## something about the additional_packages mechanism messes up buildscripts results.py
-    ## since we don't care about those packages on Linux, just zero it out, yes - a HACK
-    export additional_packages=""
-fi
-
 # dump environment variables for debugging
 begin_section "Environment"
 env|sort