diff --git a/include/pathnames.h b/include/pathnames.h
index 37f010997..e68ac7df2 100644
--- a/include/pathnames.h
+++ b/include/pathnames.h
@@ -79,7 +79,9 @@
 
 /* used in term-utils/agetty.c */
 #define _PATH_ISSUE		"/etc/issue"
-#define _PATH_OS_RELEASE	"/etc/os-release"
+#define _PATH_OS_RELEASE_ETC	"/etc/os-release"
+#define _PATH_OS_RELEASE_USR	"/usr/lib/os-release"
+
 #define _PATH_NUMLOCK_ON	_PATH_LOCALSTATEDIR "/numlock-on"
 
 #define _PATH_LOGINDEFS		"/etc/login.defs"
diff --git a/term-utils/agetty.8 b/term-utils/agetty.8
index c4b7f13e2..66f1a0389 100644
--- a/term-utils/agetty.8
+++ b/term-utils/agetty.8
@@ -338,8 +338,9 @@ Insert the system name, the name of the operating system. Same as `uname \-s'.
 See also \\S escape code.
 .TP
 S or S{VARIABLE}
-Insert the VARIABLE data from \fI/etc/os-release\fP.  If the VARIABLE argument
-is not specified then use PRETTY_NAME from the file or the system name (see \\s).
+Insert the VARIABLE data from \fI/etc/os-release\fP, if the file does not exist
+then fallback to \fI/usr/lib/os-release\fP.  If the VARIABLE argument is not
+specified then use PRETTY_NAME from the file or the system name (see \\s).
 This escape code allows to keep \fI/etc/issue\fP distribution and release
 independent.  Note that \\S{ANSI_COLOR} is converted to the real terminal
 escape sequence.
@@ -401,7 +402,7 @@ the system status file.
 .B /etc/issue
 printed before the login prompt.
 .TP
-.B /etc/os-release
+.B /etc/os-release /usr/lib/os-release
 operating system identification data.
 .TP
 .B /dev/console
diff --git a/term-utils/agetty.c b/term-utils/agetty.c
index 7c97faffa..0d7bd1db7 100644
--- a/term-utils/agetty.c
+++ b/term-utils/agetty.c
@@ -1444,10 +1444,13 @@ static char *read_os_release(struct options *op, const char *varname)
 
 	/* read the file only once */
 	if (!op->osrelease) {
-		fd = open(_PATH_OS_RELEASE, O_RDONLY);
+		fd = open(_PATH_OS_RELEASE_ETC, O_RDONLY);
 		if (fd == -1) {
-			log_warn(_("cannot open %s: %m"), _PATH_OS_RELEASE);
-			return NULL;
+			fd = open(_PATH_OS_RELEASE_USR, O_RDONLY);
+			if (fd == -1) {
+				log_warn(_("cannot open os-release file"));
+				return NULL;
+			}
 		}
 
 		if (fstat(fd, &st) < 0 || st.st_size > 4 * 1024 * 1024)