diff --git a/src/make.tcl b/src/make.tcl
index 2b99d17a..8ee0b062 100644
--- a/src/make.tcl
+++ b/src/make.tcl
@@ -2839,6 +2839,7 @@ foreach vfstail $vfs_tails {
                         #zipfs mkimg replaces the entire zipped vfs in the runtime - so we need the original data to be part of our targetvfs.
                         puts stdout "building $vfsname.new with zipfs vfsdir:$vfstail cwd: [pwd]"
                         file mkdir $targetvfs
+                        set raw_runtime $buildfolder/raw_$runtime_fullname
 
                         if {[info commands ::tcl::zipfs::mount] ne ""} {
 
@@ -2862,7 +2863,6 @@ foreach vfstail $vfs_tails {
                             #which unfortunately Tcl does by default after the 2021 'fix' :(
                             #https://core.tcl-lang.org/tcl/tktview/aaa84fbbc5
 
-                            set raw_runtime $buildfolder/raw_$runtime_fullname
                             if {[file exists $rtmountpoint]} {
                                 merge_over $rtmountpoint $targetvfs
                                 #see if we can extract the exe part
@@ -2889,16 +2889,23 @@ foreach vfstail $vfs_tails {
                                 }
                             } else {
                                 #the input building_runtime wasn't mountable as a zip - so presumably a plain executable
-                                #set building_runtime $buildfolder/build_$runtime_fullname ;#working copy of runtime executable - (possibly with kit/zipfs/cookfs etc attached!)
-                                #set raw_runtime $buildfolder/raw_$runtime_fullname
+                                #runtime executable possibly with kit/cookfs etc attached?
+                                #If not - init.tcl probably won't be found? should we even proceed ??
+                                puts stderr "\x1b\[31mWARNING the runtime was not mountable as a zip - which means tcl_library was not extracted - the executable may not work with zipfs attached!\x1b\[m"
                                 file copy -force $building_runtime $raw_runtime
                             }
                         } else {
                             package require punk::zip
                             #tcl we are calling with doesn't have zipfs - can't mount
                             puts stderr "WARNING: tcl shell '[info nameofexecutable]' being used to build doesn't have zipfs - falling back to punk::zip::extract_preamble"
-                            punk::zip::extract_preamble $building_runtime $raw_runtime $buildfolder/extracted_$runtime_fullname.zip
-                            merge_over $buildfolder/extracted_$runtime_fullname.zip $targetvfs
+                            set extractedzip $buildfolder/extracted_$runtime_fullname.zip
+                            punk::zip::extract_preamble $building_runtime $raw_runtime $extractedzip
+                            package require zipfile::decode
+                            zipfile::open $extractedzip
+                            set archiveinfo [zipfile::archive]
+                            zipfile::unzip $archiveinfo extracted_$runtime_fullname
+                            #todo - verify that init.tcl etc are present?
+                            merge_over $buildfolder/extracted_$runtime_fullname $targetvfs
                         }
 
                         merge_over $sourcefolder/vfs/_vfscommon.vfs $targetvfs