diff --git a/bin/disk-image-create b/bin/disk-image-create
index 1dae5c23..091b39cb 100755
--- a/bin/disk-image-create
+++ b/bin/disk-image-create
@@ -92,9 +92,6 @@ IMAGE_ELEMENT=$($SCRIPT_HOME/element-info --expand-dependencies $IMAGE_ELEMENT)
 echo "Building elements: $IMAGE_ELEMENT"
 echo "If prompted for sudo, install sudoers.d/img-build-sudoers into /etc/sudoers.d and restart the build."
 
-# TODO: make into an element.
-ensure_nbd
-
 mk_build_dir
 create_base
 run_d extra-data
diff --git a/bin/disk-image-get-kernel b/bin/disk-image-get-kernel
index 6affc12d..4e7e8447 100755
--- a/bin/disk-image-get-kernel
+++ b/bin/disk-image-get-kernel
@@ -68,6 +68,8 @@ source $_LIB/img-functions
 
 echo "Extracting kernel + ramdisk from $IMAGE_FILE and writing them to $OUT_DIR"
 
+ensure_nbd
+
 # sets WORK_DIR
 mount_qcow_image $IMAGE_FILE