diff --git a/pkgs/applications/virtualization/qemu/default.nix b/pkgs/applications/virtualization/qemu/default.nix
index 9009bb618acd..63675696b3b3 100644
--- a/pkgs/applications/virtualization/qemu/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/applications/virtualization/qemu/default.nix
@@ -226,9 +226,6 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation (finalAttrs: {
     # injected by the pkgsStatic stdenv
     # <https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/issues/83667>
     rm -f $out/nix-support/propagated-build-inputs
-  '' + lib.optionalString finalAttrs.separateDebugInfo ''
-    # HACK: remove broken symlink created by hook
-    rm $debug/lib/debug/s390-ccw.img
   '';
   preBuild = "cd build";
 
diff --git a/pkgs/build-support/setup-hooks/separate-debug-info.sh b/pkgs/build-support/setup-hooks/separate-debug-info.sh
index ebc773a49218..9cec77b9b0cd 100644
--- a/pkgs/build-support/setup-hooks/separate-debug-info.sh
+++ b/pkgs/build-support/setup-hooks/separate-debug-info.sh
@@ -43,10 +43,11 @@ _separateDebugInfo() {
             then
                 echo "separate-debug-info: warning: multiple files with build id $id found, overwriting"
             fi
-            $OBJCOPY --only-keep-debug "$i" "$dst/${id:0:2}/${id:2}.debug"
-
-            # Also a create a symlink <original-name>.debug.
-            ln -sfn ".build-id/${id:0:2}/${id:2}.debug" "$dst/../$(basename "$i")"
+            (
+                $OBJCOPY --only-keep-debug "$i" "$dst/${id:0:2}/${id:2}.debug" &&
+                # Also a create a symlink <original-name>.debug.
+                ln -sfn ".build-id/${id:0:2}/${id:2}.debug" "$dst/../$(basename "$i")"
+            )
         ) || rmdir -p "$dst/${id:0:2}"
     done < <(find "$prefix" -type f -print0 | sort -z)
 }