diff --git a/src/bootstrap/defaults/bootstrap.dist.toml b/src/bootstrap/defaults/bootstrap.dist.toml
index 7b381b416ca8..6221e2e01e4c 100644
--- a/src/bootstrap/defaults/bootstrap.dist.toml
+++ b/src/bootstrap/defaults/bootstrap.dist.toml
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ download-ci-llvm = false
 [rust]
 # We have several defaults in bootstrap that depend on whether the channel is `dev` (e.g. `omit-git-hash` and `download-ci-llvm`).
 # Make sure they don't get set when installing from source.
-channel = "nightly"
+channel = "auto-detect"
 # Never download a rustc, distributions must build a fresh compiler.
 download-rustc = false
 lld = true