diff --git a/mock/mock.spec b/mock/mock.spec
index a884110fd..23686c642 100644
--- a/mock/mock.spec
+++ b/mock/mock.spec
@@ -1,6 +1,19 @@
 %bcond_with lint
 %bcond_without tests
 
+# In modern distributions with RPM v4.19+ (e.g., Fedora 39+), the %%pre
+# scriptlet for creating users/groups is no longer necessary due to the built-in
+# sysusers feature.  To enable it, we simply include the `mock.conf` file in the
+# package payload so that RPM knows what actions to take.  For older
+# distributions, however, %%pre is needed.  On some of those older distros the
+# %%sysusers_*_compat macros could help (but not everywhere), so turns out it is
+# just way easier and to expand those macros and hardcode them in this specfile.
+%if 0%{?fedora} || 0%{?rhel} >= 10
+%bcond_with sysusers_compat
+%else
+%bcond_without sysusers_compat
+%endif
+
 %global __python %{__python3}
 %global python_sitelib %{python3_sitelib}
 
@@ -147,7 +160,9 @@ Summary:  Mock filesystem layout
 Requires(pre):  shadow-utils
 BuildRequires:  systemd-rpm-macros
 
-%{?sysusers_requires_compat}
+%if %{with sysusers_compat}
+Requires(pre): shadow-utils
+%endif
 
 %description filesystem
 Filesystem layout and group for Mock.
@@ -171,9 +186,6 @@ done
 
 ./precompile-bash-completion "mock.complete"
 
-# this is what %%sysusers_create_compat will expand to
-%{_rpmconfigdir}/sysusers.generate-pre.sh mock.conf > sysusers_script
-
 argparse-manpage --pyfile ./py/mock-hermetic-repo.py --function _argparser > mock-hermetic-repo.1
 
 
@@ -230,7 +242,10 @@ sed -i 's/^_MOCK_NVR = None$/_MOCK_NVR = "%name-%version-%release"/' \
     %{buildroot}%{_libexecdir}/mock/mock
 
 
-%pre filesystem -f sysusers_script
+%if %{with sysusers_compat}
+%pre filesystem
+getent group 'mock' >/dev/null || groupadd -f -g '135' -r 'mock' || :
+%endif
 
 
 %check
diff --git a/releng/release-notes-next/sysusers-on-mageia.bugfix b/releng/release-notes-next/sysusers-on-mageia.bugfix
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..10583fabd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/releng/release-notes-next/sysusers-on-mageia.bugfix
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+The %pre scriptlet is not generated for modern distributions like Fedora 39+ or
+Mageia (group/user additions are handled by an RPM built-in feature).