diff --git a/templates/lxc-download.in b/templates/lxc-download.in
index 5f1138ccf..973783ba0 100644
--- a/templates/lxc-download.in
+++ b/templates/lxc-download.in
@@ -319,8 +319,11 @@ fi
 
 if ! command -V mktemp >/dev/null 2>&1; then
   DOWNLOAD_TEMP="${DOWNLOAD_TEMP}/tmp/lxc-download.$$"
-else
+elif [ -n "${DOWNLOAD_TEMP}" ]; then
+  mkdir -p "${DOWNLOAD_TEMP}"
   DOWNLOAD_TEMP="$(mktemp -p ${DOWNLOAD_TEMP} -d)"
+else
+  DOWNLOAD_TEMP="${DOWNLOAD_TEMP}$(mktemp -d)"
 fi
 
 # Simply list images