diff --git a/linux/linux.mk b/linux/linux.mk
index 6bf2b88038..02def89113 100644
--- a/linux/linux.mk
+++ b/linux/linux.mk
@@ -269,13 +269,16 @@ endif
 LINUX_KCONFIG_FRAGMENT_FILES = $(call qstrip,$(BR2_LINUX_KERNEL_CONFIG_FRAGMENT_FILES))
 LINUX_KCONFIG_EDITORS = menuconfig xconfig gconfig nconfig
 
-# LINUX_MAKE_FLAGS overrides HOSTCC to allow the kernel build to find our
-# host-openssl and host-libelf. However, this triggers a bug in the kconfig
-# build script that causes it to build with /usr/include/ncurses.h (which is
-# typically wchar) but link with $(HOST_DIR)/lib/libncurses.so (which is not).
-# We don't actually need any host-package for kconfig, so remove the HOSTCC
-# override again.
-LINUX_KCONFIG_OPTS = $(LINUX_MAKE_FLAGS) HOSTCC="$(HOSTCC)"
+# LINUX_MAKE_FLAGS overrides HOSTCC to allow the kernel build to find
+# our host-openssl and host-libelf. However, this triggers a bug in
+# the kconfig build script that causes it to build with
+# /usr/include/ncurses.h (which is typically wchar) but link with
+# $(HOST_DIR)/lib/libncurses.so (which is not).  We don't actually
+# need any host-package for kconfig, so remove the HOSTCC override
+# again. In addition, even though linux depends on the toolchain and
+# therefore host-ccache would be ready, we use HOSTCC_NOCCACHE for
+# consistency with other kconfig packages.
+LINUX_KCONFIG_OPTS = $(LINUX_MAKE_FLAGS) HOSTCC="$(HOSTCC_NOCCACHE)"
 
 # If no package has yet set it, set it from the Kconfig option
 LINUX_NEEDS_MODULES ?= $(BR2_LINUX_NEEDS_MODULES)