diff --git a/src/lxc/initutils.c b/src/lxc/initutils.c
index 45df60f6c..8d9016cd0 100644
--- a/src/lxc/initutils.c
+++ b/src/lxc/initutils.c
@@ -47,6 +47,10 @@ extern void lxc_setup_fs(void)
 	if (mount_fs("proc", "/proc", "proc"))
 		INFO("failed to remount proc");
 
+	/* if /dev has been populated by us, /dev/shm does not exist */
+	if (access("/dev/shm", F_OK) && mkdir("/dev/shm", 0777))
+		INFO("failed to create /dev/shm");
+
 	/* if we can't mount /dev/shm, continue anyway */
 	if (mount_fs("shmfs", "/dev/shm", "tmpfs"))
 		INFO("failed to mount /dev/shm");