diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index 58ab7c28..a9e74b04 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -483,7 +483,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "glib-sys",
  "gobject-sys",
  "libc",
- "system-deps",
+ "system-deps 1.3.2",
  "winapi",
 ]
 
@@ -529,7 +529,7 @@ source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
 checksum = "c7e9b997a66e9a23d073f2b1abb4dbfc3925e0b8952f67efd8d9b6e168e4cdc1"
 dependencies = [
  "libc",
- "system-deps",
+ "system-deps 1.3.2",
 ]
 
 [[package]]
@@ -540,7 +540,7 @@ checksum = "952133b60c318a62bf82ee75b93acc7e84028a093e06b9e27981c2b6fe68218c"
 dependencies = [
  "glib-sys",
  "libc",
- "system-deps",
+ "system-deps 1.3.2",
 ]
 
 [[package]]
@@ -860,7 +860,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "glib-sys",
  "gobject-sys",
  "libc",
- "system-deps",
+ "system-deps 1.3.2",
 ]
 
 [[package]]
@@ -1197,6 +1197,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "serde_yaml",
  "structopt",
  "subprocess",
+ "system-deps 2.0.3",
  "systemd",
  "tempfile",
 ]
@@ -1335,6 +1336,12 @@ version = "0.18.0"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
 checksum = "57bd81eb48f4c437cadc685403cad539345bf703d78e63707418431cecd4522b"
 
+[[package]]
+name = "strum"
+version = "0.20.0"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "7318c509b5ba57f18533982607f24070a55d353e90d4cae30c467cdb2ad5ac5c"
+
 [[package]]
 name = "strum_macros"
 version = "0.18.0"
@@ -1347,6 +1354,18 @@ dependencies = [
  "syn",
 ]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "strum_macros"
+version = "0.20.1"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "ee8bc6b87a5112aeeab1f4a9f7ab634fe6cbefc4850006df31267f4cfb9e3149"
+dependencies = [
+ "heck",
+ "proc-macro2",
+ "quote",
+ "syn",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "subprocess"
 version = "0.2.6"
@@ -1376,11 +1395,26 @@ checksum = "0f3ecc17269a19353b3558b313bba738b25d82993e30d62a18406a24aba4649b"
 dependencies = [
  "heck",
  "pkg-config",
- "strum",
- "strum_macros",
+ "strum 0.18.0",
+ "strum_macros 0.18.0",
  "thiserror",
  "toml",
- "version-compare",
+ "version-compare 0.0.10",
+]
+
+[[package]]
+name = "system-deps"
+version = "2.0.3"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "1b59b8aafd652f3c1469f16e6c223121e8a8dbe40c71475209c1401cff3a67ef"
+dependencies = [
+ "heck",
+ "pkg-config",
+ "strum 0.20.0",
+ "strum_macros 0.20.1",
+ "thiserror",
+ "toml",
+ "version-compare 0.0.11",
 ]
 
 [[package]]
@@ -1513,6 +1547,12 @@ version = "0.0.10"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
 checksum = "d63556a25bae6ea31b52e640d7c41d1ab27faba4ccb600013837a3d0b3994ca1"
 
+[[package]]
+name = "version-compare"
+version = "0.0.11"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "1c18c859eead79d8b95d09e4678566e8d70105c4e7b251f707a03df32442661b"
+
 [[package]]
 name = "version_check"
 version = "0.1.5"
diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index 2e1bb70a..c3170822 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -3,6 +3,17 @@ name = "rpmostree-rust"
 version = "0.1.0"
 authors = ["Colin Walters <walters@verbum.org>", "Jonathan Lebon <jonathan@jlebon.com>"]
 edition = "2018"
+links = "rpmostreeinternals"
+
+# This currently needs to duplicate the libraries in configure.ac
+# until we unify on Cargo as our build system
+[package.metadata.system-deps]
+libarchive = "3.0"
+jsonglib = { name = "json-glib-1.0", version = "1" }
+polkitgobject = { name = "polkit-gobject-1", version = "0" }
+rpm = "4"
+librepo = "1"
+libsolv = "0.7"
 
 [dependencies]
 anyhow = "1.0.38"
@@ -43,6 +54,7 @@ os-release = "0.1.0"
 
 [build-dependencies]
 cbindgen = "0.16.0"
+system-deps = "2.0"
 anyhow = "1.0"
 
 [lib]
diff --git a/Makefile-rpm-ostree.am b/Makefile-rpm-ostree.am
index 89e6e9ac..8f088d2f 100644
--- a/Makefile-rpm-ostree.am
+++ b/Makefile-rpm-ostree.am
@@ -86,14 +86,15 @@ rpmostree_common_cflags = -I$(srcdir)/src/app -I$(srcdir)/src/daemon \
 	-DLIBDIR=\"$(libdir)\" -DPKGLIBDIR=\"$(pkglibdir)\" \
 	$(PKGDEP_RPMOSTREE_CFLAGS) $(PKGDEP_RPMOSTREE_RS_CFLAGS)
 rpmostree_bin_common_cflags = $(rpmostree_common_cflags)
-rpmostree_bin_common_libs = $(PKGDEP_RPMOSTREE_LIBS) $(CAP_LIBS) libglnx.la librpmostree-1.la librpmostreecxxrs.la $(librpmostree_rust_path) $(PKGDEP_RPMOSTREE_RS_LIBS) -lstdc++ -lrt
+rpmostree_common_libs = $(PKGDEP_RPMOSTREE_LIBS) $(CAP_LIBS) libglnx.la librpmostree-1.la librpmostreecxxrs.la $(PKGDEP_RPMOSTREE_RS_LIBS) -lstdc++ -lrt
+rpmostree_bin_common_libs = librpmostreeinternals.la $(librpmostree_rust_path) $(rpmostree_common_libs)
 rpm_ostree_CFLAGS = $(AM_CFLAGS) $(rpmostree_bin_common_cflags)
 rpm_ostree_CXXFLAGS = $(AM_CXXFLAGS) $(rpmostree_bin_common_cflags)
 rpm_ostree_LDADD = librpmostreeinternals.la $(rpmostree_bin_common_libs)
 EXTRA_rpm_ostree_DEPENDENCIES = libdnf.so.2
 librpmostreeinternals_la_CFLAGS = $(AM_CFLAGS) $(rpmostree_common_cflags)
 librpmostreeinternals_la_CXXFLAGS = $(AM_CXXFLAGS) $(rpmostree_common_cflags)
-librpmostreeinternals_la_LIBADD = $(rpmostree_bin_common_libs)
+librpmostreeinternals_la_LIBADD = $(rpmostree_common_libs)
 EXTRA_librpmostreeinternals_la_DEPENDENCIES = libdnf.so.2
 
 privdatadir=$(pkglibdir)
@@ -114,7 +115,9 @@ librpmostree_rust_path = $(top_srcdir)/target/@RUST_TARGET_SUBDIR@/librpmostree_
 # we exit with a fatal error, since someone probably did `make && sudo make install`,
 # and in this case cargo will download into ~/.root which we don't want.
 LIBRPMOSTREE_RUST_SRCS = $(shell find rust/src/ -name '*.rs') Cargo.toml Cargo.lock cbindgen.toml
-$(librpmostree_rust_path): Makefile $(LIBRPMOSTREE_RUST_SRCS)
+# FIXME - build all this code in a rpmostree-sys crate, or just move all the C/C++ build
+# to Rust.  Currently this forces build system serialization
+$(librpmostree_rust_path): Makefile $(LIBRPMOSTREE_RUST_SRCS) librpmostreeinternals.la
 	$(cargo_build) $(CARGO_RELEASE_ARGS)
 EXTRA_DIST += $(LIBRPMOSTREE_RUST_SRCS)
 
diff --git a/build.rs b/build.rs
index 750c35af..4ad8b1c9 100644
--- a/build.rs
+++ b/build.rs
@@ -16,6 +16,15 @@ fn detect_fedora_feature() -> Result<()> {
 }
 
 fn main() -> Result<()> {
+    let cwd = std::env::current_dir()?;
+    let cwd = cwd.to_str().expect("utf8 pwd");
+    println!("cargo:rustc-link-search={}/.libs", cwd);
+    println!("cargo:rustc-link-lib=static=rpmostreeinternals");
+    println!("cargo:rustc-link-lib=cap");
+    println!("cargo:rustc-link-search={}/libdnf-build/libdnf", cwd);
+    println!("cargo:rustc-link-lib=dnf");
+    println!("cargo:rustc-link-lib=rpmostree-1");
+    system_deps::Config::new().probe()?;
     detect_fedora_feature()?;
     Ok(())
 }