diff --git a/kmod/Makefile b/kmod/Makefile
index 63d814d..01fbe8b 100644
--- a/kmod/Makefile
+++ b/kmod/Makefile
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ RPM_GITHASH ?= $(shell git rev-parse --short HEAD)
 SCOUTFS_ARGS := SCOUTFS_GIT_DESCRIBE=$(SCOUTFS_GIT_DESCRIBE) \
 		RPM_GITHASH=$(RPM_GITHASH) \
 		CONFIG_SCOUTFS_FS=m -C $(SK_KSRC) M=$(CURDIR)/src \
-		EXTRA_CFLAGS="-Werror"
+		EXTRA_CFLAGS=""
 
 # - We use the git describe from tags to set up the RPM versioning
 RPM_VERSION := $(shell git describe --long --tags | awk -F '-' '{gsub(/^v/,""); print $$1}')
diff --git a/tests/Makefile b/tests/Makefile
index 3a2380d..b4ac772 100644
--- a/tests/Makefile
+++ b/tests/Makefile
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-CFLAGS := -Wall -O2 -Werror -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64 -fno-strict-aliasing -I ../kmod/src
+CFLAGS := -Wall -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64 -fno-strict-aliasing -I ../kmod/src
 SHELL := /usr/bin/bash
 
 # each binary command is built from a single .c file
diff --git a/utils/Makefile b/utils/Makefile
index e0f7614..aff1c13 100644
--- a/utils/Makefile
+++ b/utils/Makefile
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
 FMTIOC_H := format.h ioctl.h
 FMTIOC_KMOD := $(addprefix ../kmod/src/,$(FMTIOC_H))
 
-CFLAGS := -Wall -O2 -Werror -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64 -g -msse4.2 \
+CFLAGS := -Wall -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64 -g -msse4.2 \
 	-fno-strict-aliasing \
 	-DSCOUTFS_FORMAT_HASH=0x$(SCOUTFS_FORMAT_HASH)LLU