diff --git a/board/common/overlay/etc/init.d/conf b/board/common/overlay/etc/init.d/conf
index 39abf427ae..dc71091fb9 100644
--- a/board/common/overlay/etc/init.d/conf
+++ b/board/common/overlay/etc/init.d/conf
@@ -4,6 +4,17 @@ _sys_conf="/etc/os.conf"
 _boot_conf="/boot/os.conf"
 _conf="/data/etc/os.conf"
 
+if ! [ -d /data/etc ]; then
+    # use boot/system variants if we don't have the data partition mounted
+    if [ -f $_boot_conf ]; then
+        source $_boot_conf
+    elif [ -f $_sys_conf ]; then
+        source $_sys_conf
+    fi
+
+    return
+fi
+
 if ! [ -f $_conf ]; then
     if [ -f $_boot_conf ]; then
         cp $_boot_conf $_conf
@@ -12,5 +23,7 @@ if ! [ -f $_conf ]; then
     fi
 fi
 
-source $_conf
+if [ -f $_conf ]; then
+    source $_conf
+fi