diff --git a/pkgs/os-specific/solo5/default.nix b/pkgs/os-specific/solo5/default.nix
index 87e992555548..08c9f223ef79 100644
--- a/pkgs/os-specific/solo5/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/os-specific/solo5/default.nix
@@ -34,6 +34,9 @@ in stdenv.mkDerivation {
 
   enableParallelBuilding = true;
 
+  separateDebugInfo = true;
+    # debugging requires information for both the unikernel and the tender
+
   installPhase = ''
     runHook preInstall
     export DESTDIR=$out