diff --git a/meta-phosphor/common/recipes-phosphor/obmc-phosphor-user/obmc-phosphor-user.bb b/meta-phosphor/common/recipes-phosphor/obmc-phosphor-user/obmc-phosphor-user.bb
index 4877673..33a9ca0 100644
--- a/meta-phosphor/common/recipes-phosphor/obmc-phosphor-user/obmc-phosphor-user.bb
+++ b/meta-phosphor/common/recipes-phosphor/obmc-phosphor-user/obmc-phosphor-user.bb
@@ -16,6 +16,13 @@
 S = "${WORKDIR}/git"
 INSTALL_NAME = "userman.py"
 
+# Since base_do_compile finds a makefile (from networkd) it tries to
+# compile.  Short-circuit that because we just need to copy a python
+# file in this package.
+do_compile() {
+    :
+}
+
 do_install() {
 echo "***installing $INSTALL_NAME"
         install -d ${D}/${sbindir}