diff --git a/projects/tinkerbell/hook/Makefile b/projects/tinkerbell/hook/Makefile
index 10b25a4a1e..2a29254818 100644
--- a/projects/tinkerbell/hook/Makefile
+++ b/projects/tinkerbell/hook/Makefile
@@ -144,9 +144,11 @@ $(LINUXKIT_CACHE_FILE): $(PROJECT_DEPENDENCIES_TARGETS)
 	@mkdir -p $(@D)
 	cp $(BINARY_DEPS_DIR)/linux-$(BUILDER_PLATFORM_ARCH)/eksa/linuxkit/linuxkit/linuxkit $@
 
-.PHONY: populate-linuxkit-cache
-populate-linuxkit-cache:
-	@git -C $(REPO) checkout -- linuxkit-templates/hook.template.yaml; \
+#.PHONY: populate-linuxkit-cache
+#populate-linuxkit-cache:
+hook/cache/linuxkit/index.json:
+	@source $(BUILD_LIB)/common.sh; \
+	git -C $(REPO) checkout -- linuxkit-templates/hook.template.yaml; \
 	sed -i 's/[^ ]*linuxkit\/\([^:]*\)\(:.*$$\)/$(subst /,\/,$(LINUXKIT_IMAGE_REPO))\/linuxkit\/\1:$(LATEST_TAG)/' $(REPO)/linuxkit-templates/hook.template.yaml; \
 	images=(); \
 	while read -r image; do \
@@ -171,9 +173,9 @@ populate-linuxkit-cache:
 # Using sed they are pulled back out so that we can run cache pull with retries since we tend to see
 # issues from time to time pulling from ecr
 $(CREATE_HOOK_FILES_PATTERN)-%: BUILD_ARCH=$(if $(findstring x86_64,$*),amd64,arm64)
-$(CREATE_HOOK_FILES_PATTERN)-%: $(LINUXKIT_CACHE_FILE) | populate-linuxkit-cache $$(ENABLE_DOCKER)
+$(CREATE_HOOK_FILES_PATTERN)-%: $(LINUXKIT_CACHE_FILE) | hook/cache/linuxkit/index.json $$(ENABLE_DOCKER)
 	@source $(BUILD_LIB)/common.sh && build::common::use_go_version $(GOLANG_VERSION); \
-	if [ -f $(REPO)/out/linuxkit-hook-default-$(BUILD_ARCH)/hook-cmdline ]; then echo "remove hook/out before continuing"; exit 1; fi; \
+	if [ -f $(REPO)/out/linuxkit-hook-default-$(BUILD_ARCH)/hook-cmdline ]; then echo "rm -rf hook/out before continuing"; exit 1; fi; \
 	cd $(REPO); \
 	DEBUG=yes LINUXKIT_VERSION_DEFAULT=$(LINUXKIT_VERSION) HOOK_KERNEL_OCI_BASE=$(IMAGE_REPO)/$(KERNEL_IMAGE_COMPONENT) \
 		HOOK_LK_CONTAINERS_OCI_BASE=$(IMAGE_REPO)/tinkerbell/ \