diff --git a/scripts/Makefile.modinst b/scripts/Makefile.modinst
index 0dae402661f3..5a4579e76485 100644
--- a/scripts/Makefile.modinst
+++ b/scripts/Makefile.modinst
@@ -8,10 +8,7 @@ __modinst:
 
 include scripts/Kbuild.include
 
-#
-
-__modules := $(sort $(shell grep -h '\.ko$$' /dev/null $(wildcard $(MODVERDIR)/*.mod)))
-modules := $(patsubst %.o,%.ko,$(wildcard $(__modules:.ko=.o)))
+modules := $(sort $(shell cat $(if $(KBUILD_EXTMOD),$(KBUILD_EXTMOD)/)modules.order))
 
 PHONY += $(modules)
 __modinst: $(modules)