diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 6d4e32fd..e4073954 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -117,6 +117,7 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 - Make configured paths available in overlays as `.Path` #960
 - Introduced IPXESOURCE environment variable which allows to specify the path to iPXE 
   binaries not provided by warewulf
+- use distrubtion ipxe binaries in the rpm
 
 ## [4.4.0] 2023-01-18
 
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index cbba5534..85d41cdd 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -148,7 +148,7 @@ init:
 dist:
 	rm -rf .dist/ $(WAREWULF)-$(VERSION).tar.gz
 	mkdir -p .dist/$(WAREWULF)-$(VERSION)
-	rsync -a --exclude=".*" --exclude "*~" * .dist/$(WAREWULF)-$(VERSION)/
+	rsync -a --exclude=".github"  --exclude=".vscode" --exclude "*~" * .dist/$(WAREWULF)-$(VERSION)/
 	cd .dist; tar -czf ../$(WAREWULF)-$(VERSION).tar.gz $(WAREWULF)-$(VERSION)
 	rm -rf .dist
 
diff --git a/Variables.mk b/Variables.mk
index 01c66790..8f8db4c8 100644
--- a/Variables.mk
+++ b/Variables.mk
@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ ifneq ($(OS),)
 endif
 
 # System directory paths
-VARLIST += PREFIX BINDIR SYSCONFDIR SRVDIR DATADIR MANDIR DOCDIR LOCALSTATEDIR
+VARLIST += PREFIX BINDIR SYSCONFDIR SRVDIR DATADIR MANDIR DOCDIR LOCALSTATEDIR RELEASE
 PREFIX ?= /usr/local
 BINDIR ?= $(PREFIX)/bin
 SYSCONFDIR ?= $(PREFIX)/etc
diff --git a/warewulf.spec.in b/warewulf.spec.in
index 83ad5034..be147938 100644
--- a/warewulf.spec.in
+++ b/warewulf.spec.in
@@ -39,9 +39,11 @@ BuildRequires: go >= 1.16
 BuildRequires: firewall-macros
 BuildRequires: firewalld
 BuildRequires: tftp
+BuildRequires: yq
 Requires: tftp
 Requires: nfs-kernel-server
 Requires: firewalld
+Requires: ipxe-bootimgs
 %else
 # Assume Red Hat/Fedora build
 BuildRequires: system-release
@@ -102,6 +104,15 @@ make install \
 
 %pre
 getent group %{wwgroup} >/dev/null || groupadd -r %{wwgroup}
+# use ipxe images from the distribution
+%if 0%{?suse_version} || 0%{?sle_version}
+yq e '
+  .tftp.ipxe."00:00" = "ipxe/undionly.kpxe" |
+  .tftp.ipxe."00:07" = "ipxe/ipxe-x86_64.efi" |
+  .tftp.ipxe."00:09" = "ipxe/ipxe-x86_64.efi" |
+  .tftp.ipxe."00:0B" = "ipxe/snp-arm64.efi" ' \
+  -i %{buildroot}%{_sysconfdir}/warewulf/warewulf.conf
+%endif
 
 
 %post