diff --git a/.gitmodules b/.gitmodules
deleted file mode 100644
index da3426a76e3d..000000000000
--- a/.gitmodules
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,19 +0,0 @@
-[submodule "rimage"]
-	path = rimage
-# This is a _relative_ submodule URL. In some use cases it's better than
-# an _absolute_ submodule URL, in other cases it's not. One size does
-# unfortunately not fit all.
-#
-# Among other pages, http://blog.tremily.us/posts/Relative_submodules/
-# has a good comparison
-#
-# If you use Zephyr you must also look at the comments in sof/west.yml.
-#
-# If you want to fork or mirror sof.git _without_ doing the same for
-# rimage.git then your automation may want you to change and git commit
-# an absolute URL in your branch. No need to git commit for interactive
-# use; a local and temporary edit of this file is enough for interactive
-# use because .gitmodules is used only once to --init[ialize]
-# .git/config the first time. Then .gitmodules is never used again after
-# cloning.
-	url = ../rimage