diff --git a/scripts/link-vmlinux.sh b/scripts/link-vmlinux.sh
index dd484e92752e..ac569e197bfa 100755
--- a/scripts/link-vmlinux.sh
+++ b/scripts/link-vmlinux.sh
@@ -63,12 +63,18 @@ vmlinux_link()
 	local lds="${objtree}/${KBUILD_LDS}"
 	local output=${1}
 	local objects
+	local strip_debug
 
 	info LD ${output}
 
 	# skip output file argument
 	shift
 
+	# The kallsyms linking does not need debug symbols included.
+	if [ "$output" != "${output#.tmp_vmlinux.kallsyms}" ] ; then
+		strip_debug=-Wl,--strip-debug
+	fi
+
 	if [ "${SRCARCH}" != "um" ]; then
 		objects="--whole-archive			\
 			${KBUILD_VMLINUX_OBJS}			\
@@ -79,6 +85,7 @@ vmlinux_link()
 			${@}"
 
 		${LD} ${KBUILD_LDFLAGS} ${LDFLAGS_vmlinux}	\
+			${strip_debug#-Wl,}			\
 			-o ${output}				\
 			-T ${lds} ${objects}
 	else
@@ -91,6 +98,7 @@ vmlinux_link()
 			${@}"
 
 		${CC} ${CFLAGS_vmlinux}				\
+			${strip_debug}				\
 			-o ${output}				\
 			-Wl,-T,${lds}				\
 			${objects}				\
@@ -106,6 +114,8 @@ gen_btf()
 {
 	local pahole_ver
 	local bin_arch
+	local bin_format
+	local bin_file
 
 	if ! [ -x "$(command -v ${PAHOLE})" ]; then
 		echo >&2 "BTF: ${1}: pahole (${PAHOLE}) is not available"
@@ -118,8 +128,9 @@ gen_btf()
 		return 1
 	fi
 
-	info "BTF" ${2}
 	vmlinux_link ${1}
+
+	info "BTF" ${2}
 	LLVM_OBJCOPY=${OBJCOPY} ${PAHOLE} -J ${1}
 
 	# dump .BTF section into raw binary file to link with final vmlinux
@@ -127,11 +138,12 @@ gen_btf()
 		cut -d, -f1 | cut -d' ' -f2)
 	bin_format=$(LANG=C ${OBJDUMP} -f ${1} | grep 'file format' | \
 		awk '{print $4}')
+	bin_file=.btf.vmlinux.bin
 	${OBJCOPY} --change-section-address .BTF=0 \
 		--set-section-flags .BTF=alloc -O binary \
-		--only-section=.BTF ${1} .btf.vmlinux.bin
+		--only-section=.BTF ${1} $bin_file
 	${OBJCOPY} -I binary -O ${bin_format} -B ${bin_arch} \
-		--rename-section .data=.BTF .btf.vmlinux.bin ${2}
+		--rename-section .data=.BTF $bin_file ${2}
 }
 
 # Create ${2} .o file with all symbols from the ${1} object file
@@ -166,8 +178,8 @@ kallsyms()
 kallsyms_step()
 {
 	kallsymso_prev=${kallsymso}
-	kallsymso=.tmp_kallsyms${1}.o
-	kallsyms_vmlinux=.tmp_vmlinux${1}
+	kallsyms_vmlinux=.tmp_vmlinux.kallsyms${1}
+	kallsymso=${kallsyms_vmlinux}.o
 
 	vmlinux_link ${kallsyms_vmlinux} "${kallsymso_prev}" ${btf_vmlinux_bin_o}
 	kallsyms ${kallsyms_vmlinux} ${kallsymso}
@@ -190,7 +202,6 @@ cleanup()
 {
 	rm -f .btf.*
 	rm -f .tmp_System.map
-	rm -f .tmp_kallsyms*
 	rm -f .tmp_vmlinux*
 	rm -f System.map
 	rm -f vmlinux
@@ -257,9 +268,8 @@ tr '\0' '\n' < modules.builtin.modinfo | sed -n 's/^[[:alnum:]:_]*\.file=//p' |
 
 btf_vmlinux_bin_o=""
 if [ -n "${CONFIG_DEBUG_INFO_BTF}" ]; then
-	if gen_btf .tmp_vmlinux.btf .btf.vmlinux.bin.o ; then
-		btf_vmlinux_bin_o=.btf.vmlinux.bin.o
-	else
+	btf_vmlinux_bin_o=.btf.vmlinux.bin.o
+	if ! gen_btf .tmp_vmlinux.btf $btf_vmlinux_bin_o ; then
 		echo >&2 "Failed to generate BTF for vmlinux"
 		echo >&2 "Try to disable CONFIG_DEBUG_INFO_BTF"
 		exit 1