diff --git a/debian/gitlab.links b/debian/gitlab.links
index af476b0f69..8e60cdb749 100644
--- a/debian/gitlab.links
+++ b/debian/gitlab.links
@@ -2,6 +2,9 @@ var/lib/gitlab/public usr/share/gitlab/public
 var/lib/gitlab/shared usr/share/gitlab/shared
 var/lib/gitlab/db usr/share/gitlab/db
 var/lib/gitlab/node_modules usr/share/gitlab/node_modules
+# This is required for webpack to resolve direct dependencies mentioned
+# in config/webpack.config.js, because it is a symbolic link to /etc/gitlab
+var/lib/gitlab/node_modules etc/gitlab/node_modules
 var/lib/gitlab/package.json usr/share/gitlab/package.json
 var/lib/gitlab/yarn-error.log usr/share/gitlab/yarn-error.log
 var/lib/gitlab/yarn.lock usr/share/gitlab/yarn.lock
diff --git a/debian/rake-tasks.sh b/debian/rake-tasks.sh
index f074560665..97e2f94518 100755
--- a/debian/rake-tasks.sh
+++ b/debian/rake-tasks.sh
@@ -53,4 +53,4 @@ runuser -u ${gitlab_user} -- sh -c '/usr/bin/bundle exec rake tmp:cache:clear as
 echo "Webpacking..."
 # Workaround for webpack crashing with nodejs 10 - https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=956211
 # Build assets in production mode - https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=956508
-runuser -u ${gitlab_user} -- sh -c 'NODE_ENV="production" NODE_PATH="node_modules" NODE_OPTIONS="--max-old-space-size=4096" webpack --config config/webpack.config.js'
+runuser -u ${gitlab_user} -- sh -c 'NODE_ENV="production" NODE_OPTIONS="--max-old-space-size=4096" webpack --config config/webpack.config.js'