diff --git a/src/arch/i386/config/make.base b/src/arch/i386/config/make.base
index 32da43f8f5..2a428a0cff 100644
--- a/src/arch/i386/config/make.base
+++ b/src/arch/i386/config/make.base
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ dir /src/config
 
 makerule all : romimage ;
 makerule floppy : all ; mcopy -o romimage a:
-makerule romimage : linuxbios.rom vmlinux.bin.gz.block ; cat vmlinux.bin.gz.block linuxbios.rom > romimage
+makerule romimage : linuxbios.rom payload.bin.gz.block ; cat payload.bin.gz.block linuxbios.rom > romimage
 
 
 makerule linuxbios.rom: linuxbios.strip ; 
@@ -36,12 +36,12 @@ addaction linuxbios.rom dd if=linuxbios.strip of=linuxbios.rom bs=1 seek=`expr $
 makerule mkrom: $(TOP)/mkrom/mkrom.c ; $(CC) -o mkrom $<
 
 
-makerule vmlinux.bin.gz.block : vmlinux.bin.gz ; dd conv=sync bs=448k if=vmlinux.bin.gz of=vmlinux.bin.gz.block
-makerule vmlinux.bin.gz: vmlinux.bin ;gzip -f -3 vmlinux.bin
-makerule vmlinux.bin: $(LINUX)/vmlinux ;  objcopy -O binary -R .note -R .comment -S $< vmlinux.bin
+makerule payload.bin.gz.block : payload.bin.gz ; dd conv=sync bs=448k if=payload.bin.gz of=payload.bin.gz.block
+makerule payload.bin.gz: payload.bin ;gzip -f -3 payload.bin
+makerule payload.bin: $(PAYLOAD) ;  objcopy -O binary -R .note -R .comment -S $< payload.bin
 
 
-addaction clean rm -f romimage mkrom vmlinux.*
+addaction clean rm -f romimage mkrom payload.*
 
 # do standard config files that the user need not specify
 # for now, this is just 'lib', but it may be more later. 
diff --git a/util/config/NLBConfig.py b/util/config/NLBConfig.py
index a1f19111c2..481b8763f9 100644
--- a/util/config/NLBConfig.py
+++ b/util/config/NLBConfig.py
@@ -360,9 +360,12 @@ def docipl(dir, ipl_name):
 	set_option("_RAMBASE", "0x4000")
 	set_option("_ROMBASE", "0x80000")
 
+def payload(dir, payload_name):
+	payloadrule = 'PAYLOAD=' + payload_name
+	makedefine(dir, payloadrule)
+	
 def linux(dir, linux_name):
-	linuxrule = 'LINUX=' + linux_name
-	makedefine(dir, linuxrule)
+	payload(dir, linux_name + '/vmlinux')
 
 def setrambase(dir, address):
 	set_option("_RAMBASE", address)
@@ -406,6 +409,7 @@ command_actions = {
 	'nsuperio'    : nsuperio,
 	'object'      : object,
 	'linux'       : linux,
+	'payload'     : payload,
 	'raminit'     : raminit,
 	'mainboardinit'     : mainboardinit,
 	'ldscript'    : ldscript,