diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index df66228a87..f95feee99d 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -503,8 +503,7 @@ splash_bmp = files('test/splash.bmp')
 
 # if -Dxxx-path option is found, use that. Otherwise, check in $PATH,
 # /usr/sbin, /sbin, and fall back to the default from middle column.
-progs = [['telinit',    '/lib/sysvinit/telinit'],
-         ['quotaon',    '/usr/sbin/quotaon'    ],
+progs = [['quotaon',    '/usr/sbin/quotaon'    ],
          ['quotacheck', '/usr/sbin/quotacheck' ],
          ['kill',       '/usr/bin/kill'        ],
          ['kmod',       '/usr/bin/kmod'        ],
@@ -531,6 +530,8 @@ foreach prog : progs
         substs.set(name, path)
 endforeach
 
+conf.set_quoted('TELINIT', get_option('telinit-path'))
+
 if run_command('ln', '--relative', '--help').returncode() != 0
         error('ln does not support --relative')
 endif
diff --git a/meson_options.txt b/meson_options.txt
index f0c0506ff1..f71755cfa6 100644
--- a/meson_options.txt
+++ b/meson_options.txt
@@ -29,7 +29,8 @@ option('sysvinit-path', type : 'string', value : '/etc/init.d',
        description : 'the directory where the SysV init scripts are located')
 option('sysvrcnd-path', type : 'string', value : '/etc/rc.d',
        description : 'the base directory for SysV rcN.d directories')
-option('telinit-path', type : 'string', description : 'path to telinit')
+option('telinit-path', type : 'string', value : '/lib/sysvinit/telinit',
+       description : 'path to telinit')
 option('rc-local', type : 'string',
        value : '/etc/rc.local')
 option('halt-local', type : 'string',