diff --git a/dom0-updates/qubes-dom0-update b/dom0-updates/qubes-dom0-update
index 617344e..8986cb8 100755
--- a/dom0-updates/qubes-dom0-update
+++ b/dom0-updates/qubes-dom0-update
@@ -166,7 +166,7 @@ rm -f /var/lib/qubes/updates/errors
 echo "Using $UPDATEVM as UpdateVM to download updates for Dom0; this may take some time..." >&2
 
 # qvm-run by default auto-starts the VM if not running
-qvm-run --nogui -q -u root  $UPDATEVM 'mkdir -m 775 /var/lib/qubes/dom0-updates/' || exit 1
+qvm-run --nogui -q -u root  $UPDATEVM 'mkdir -m 775 -p /var/lib/qubes/dom0-updates/' || exit 1
 qvm-run --nogui -q -u root  $UPDATEVM 'chown user:user /var/lib/qubes/dom0-updates/' || exit 1
 qvm-run --nogui -q $UPDATEVM 'rm -rf /var/lib/qubes/dom0-updates/etc' || exit 1
 tar c /var/lib/rpm /etc/yum.repos.d /etc/yum.conf 2>/dev/null | \