diff --git a/kbuildx/scripts/netbsd-deps.sh b/kbuildx/scripts/netbsd-deps.sh
index 847ee5d..265e8d2 100755
--- a/kbuildx/scripts/netbsd-deps.sh
+++ b/kbuildx/scripts/netbsd-deps.sh
@@ -32,8 +32,9 @@ if ! command -v pkgin >/dev/null 2>&1; then
     pkg_add pkgin
 fi
 mkdir -p /usr/pkg/etc/pkgin
-# The minimal NetBSD image omits empty manpage directories that package
-# post-install scripts expect to exist.
+# The minimal NetBSD image can contain an incompatible manpage symlink/layout;
+# package extraction needs a writable pkgsrc-owned tree.
+rm -rf /usr/pkg/man
 mkdir -p /usr/pkg/man/man1 /usr/pkg/man/man3 /usr/pkg/man/man5 /usr/pkg/man/man7
 export PKG_PATH="$package_path"
 printf '%s\n' "$package_path" > /usr/pkg/etc/pkgin/repositories.conf