diff --git a/scripts/link-vmlinux.sh b/scripts/link-vmlinux.sh
index 9c35f5a79..cbee1f4f1 100755
--- a/scripts/link-vmlinux.sh
+++ b/scripts/link-vmlinux.sh
@@ -228,6 +228,11 @@ gen_btf()
 
 	vmlinux_link ${1}
 
+	if [ "${pahole_ver}" -ge "118" ] && [ "${pahole_ver}" -le "121" ]; then
+		# pahole 1.18 through 1.21 can't handle zero-sized per-CPU vars
+		extra_paholeopt="${extra_paholeopt} --skip_encoding_btf_vars"
+	fi
+
 	info "BTF" ${2}
 	LLVM_OBJCOPY="${OBJCOPY}" ${PAHOLE} -J ${extra_paholeopt} ${1}