diff --git a/elements/debian-minimal/element-deps b/elements/debian-minimal/element-deps
index e078fde1..cba86060 100644
--- a/elements/debian-minimal/element-deps
+++ b/elements/debian-minimal/element-deps
@@ -1,2 +1 @@
 debootstrap
-package-installs
diff --git a/elements/debian/package-installs.yaml b/elements/debian/package-installs.yaml
index b36f3da7..862c274f 100644
--- a/elements/debian/package-installs.yaml
+++ b/elements/debian/package-installs.yaml
@@ -10,4 +10,3 @@ net-tools:
 cloud-init:
 cloud-utils:
 cloud-initramfs-growroot:
-locales-all:
diff --git a/elements/debootstrap/install.d/12-debian-locale-gen b/elements/debootstrap/install.d/12-debian-locale-gen
index 5b0d450d..24773e89 100755
--- a/elements/debootstrap/install.d/12-debian-locale-gen
+++ b/elements/debootstrap/install.d/12-debian-locale-gen
@@ -21,6 +21,8 @@ fi
 set -eu
 set -o pipefail
 
+[ -f /etc/locale.gen ] && rm /etc/locale.gen
+
 debconf-set-selections - <<EOF
 locales locales/locales_to_be_generated multiselect en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8
 # Choices: None, C.UTF-8, en_US.UTF-8