diff --git a/elements/zypper-minimal/README.rst b/elements/zypper-minimal/README.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..d9c8fd323
--- /dev/null
+++ b/elements/zypper-minimal/README.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+==============
+zypper-minimal
+==============
+Base element for creating minimal SUSE-based images
+
+This element is incomplete by itself so you probaby want to use it along
+with the opensuse-minimal one. It requires 'zypper' to be installed on the
+host.
+
+Repositories
+------------
+
+This element expects the `ZYPPER_REPOS` variable to be exported by the
+operating system element. This variable contains repository mappings in 
+the following format: `${repo_name}==>${repo_url}`. For example::
+
+ ZYPPER_REPOS="update=>http://download.opensuse.org/update/leap/42.1/oss/ "
+ ZYPPER_REPOS+="oss=>http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/leap/42.1/repo/oss/"
+ export ZYPPER_REPOS
diff --git a/elements/zypper-minimal/element-deps b/elements/zypper-minimal/element-deps
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..846428bd8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/elements/zypper-minimal/element-deps
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+dib-run-parts
+package-installs
+zypper
diff --git a/elements/zypper-minimal/install.d/15-zypper-fstab b/elements/zypper-minimal/install.d/15-zypper-fstab
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..cffbe1df5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/elements/zypper-minimal/install.d/15-zypper-fstab
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+#
+# Copyright 2015 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may
+# not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain
+# a copy of the License at
+#
+#     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT
+# WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the
+# License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations
+# under the License.
+#
+
+if [ "${DIB_DEBUG_TRACE:-0}" -gt 0 ]; then
+    set -x
+fi
+set -eu
+set -o pipefail
+
+cat << EOF > /etc/fstab
+proc /proc proc nodev,noexec,nosuid 0 0
+LABEL=${DIB_ROOT_LABEL} / ${FS_TYPE} errors=remount-ro 0 1
+EOF
diff --git a/elements/zypper-minimal/package-installs.yaml b/elements/zypper-minimal/package-installs.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..d2ccc1605
--- /dev/null
+++ b/elements/zypper-minimal/package-installs.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+# kernel
+linux-image-generic:
+# And a few useful tools. Some are pulled
+# as dependencies but that may change so lets
+# be explicit.
+bash:
+lsb-release:
+openssl:
+sed:
+sudo:
diff --git a/elements/zypper-minimal/root.d/08-zypper-chroot b/elements/zypper-minimal/root.d/08-zypper-chroot
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..e6d55c30a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/elements/zypper-minimal/root.d/08-zypper-chroot
@@ -0,0 +1,87 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+#
+# Copyright 2016 SUSE Linux Products Gmb
+# Copyright 2015 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may
+# not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain
+# a copy of the License at
+#
+#     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT
+# WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the
+# License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations
+# under the License.
+#
+
+# dib-lint: disable=safe_sudo
+
+if [ "${DIB_DEBUG_TRACE:-0}" -gt 0 ]; then
+    set -x
+fi
+set -eu
+set -o pipefail
+
+[ -n "${ZYPPER_REPOS}" ]
+
+function cleanup() {
+    sudo umount $TMP_MOUNT_PATH/var/cache/zypp
+}
+
+trap cleanup EXIT
+
+ZYPPER_TARGET_OPTS="--non-interactive --gpg-auto-import-keys --root $TARGET_ROOT"
+ZYPPER_INSTALL_OPTS="--no-confirm --no-recommends"
+
+for repo in ${ZYPPER_REPOS}; do
+    reponame=repo-${repo%%=>*}
+    repouri=${repo##*=>}
+    sudo zypper ${ZYPPER_TARGET_OPTS} addrepo --name ${reponame} --keep-packages ${repouri} ${reponame}
+done
+
+# Refresh it
+sudo zypper ${ZYPPER_TARGET_OPTS} refresh
+
+# It appears that zypper will clean up the repo's cache when it (re-)adds the
+# repo so we need to add the cache now, once the repos are added. This is
+# similar to what the zypper/50-zypper-cache script does
+ZYPPER_CACHE_DIR=$DIB_IMAGE_CACHE/zypper
+mkdir -p $ZYPPER_CACHE_DIR
+
+sudo mkdir -p $TMP_MOUNT_PATH/var/cache/zypp
+sudo mount --bind $ZYPPER_CACHE_DIR $TMP_MOUNT_PATH/var/cache/zypp
+
+# Install filesystem, base and useful tools
+sudo zypper ${ZYPPER_TARGET_OPTS} install ${ZYPPER_INSTALL_OPTS} filesystem
+# Install basic components in order
+sudo zypper ${ZYPPER_TARGET_OPTS} install ${ZYPPER_INSTALL_OPTS} -t pattern base
+# Install a few useful tools
+sudo zypper ${ZYPPER_TARGET_OPTS} install ${ZYPPER_INSTALL_OPTS} python zypper
+
+# Put in a dummy /etc/resolv.conf over the temporary one we used
+# to bootstrap.  systemd has a bug/feature [1] that it will assume
+# you want systemd-networkd as the network manager and create a
+# broken symlink to /run/... if the base image doesn't have one.
+# This broken link confuses things like dhclient.
+# [1] https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1197204
+echo -e "# This file intentionally left blank\n" | \
+    sudo tee $TARGET_ROOT/etc/resolv.conf
+
+# set the most reliable UTF-8 locale
+echo -e 'LANG="en_US.UTF-8"' | \
+sudo tee $TARGET_ROOT/etc/locale.conf
+# default to UTC
+sudo -E chroot $TARGET_ROOT ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/UTC \
+    /etc/localtime
+
+# RPM doesn't know whether files have been changed since install
+# At this point though, we know for certain that we have changed no
+# config files, so anything marked .rpmnew is just a bug.
+for newfile in $(sudo find $TARGET_ROOT -type f -name '*rpmnew') ; do
+    sudo mv $newfile $(echo $newfile | sed 's/.rpmnew$//')
+done
+
+# Unmounting of the /var/cache/zypp is handled by the cleanup EXIT
+# handler so there is nothing else to do here