diff --git a/scripts/link-vmlinux.sh b/scripts/link-vmlinux.sh
index 06495379fcd8..2998ddb323e3 100755
--- a/scripts/link-vmlinux.sh
+++ b/scripts/link-vmlinux.sh
@@ -127,7 +127,8 @@ gen_btf()
 		cut -d, -f1 | cut -d' ' -f2)
 	bin_format=$(LANG=C ${OBJDUMP} -f ${1} | grep 'file format' | \
 		awk '{print $4}')
-	${OBJCOPY} --dump-section .BTF=.btf.vmlinux.bin ${1} 2>/dev/null
+	${OBJCOPY} --set-section-flags .BTF=alloc -O binary \
+		--only-section=.BTF ${1} .btf.vmlinux.bin 2>/dev/null
 	${OBJCOPY} -I binary -O ${bin_format} -B ${bin_arch} \
 		--rename-section .data=.BTF .btf.vmlinux.bin ${2}
 }
@@ -253,6 +254,10 @@ btf_vmlinux_bin_o=""
 if [ -n "${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
+		echo >&2 "Failed to generate BTF for vmlinux"
+		echo >&2 "Try to disable CONFIG_DEBUG_INFO_BTF"
+		exit 1
 	fi
 fi