diff --git a/dwarf_loader.c b/dwarf_loader.c
index b73d7867e1e6..aba14679a07e 100644
--- a/dwarf_loader.c
+++ b/dwarf_loader.c
@@ -467,8 +467,15 @@ static struct base_type *base_type__new(Dwarf_Die *die, struct cu *cu)
 
 	if (bt != NULL) {
 		tag__init(&bt->tag, cu, die);
-		bt->name = strings__add(strings, attr_string(die, DW_AT_name));
-		bt->bit_size = attr_numeric(die, DW_AT_byte_size) * 8;
+		const char *name = attr_string(die, DW_AT_name);
+		bt->name = strings__add(strings, name);
+		/* DW_ATE_unsigned_1 has DW_AT_byte_size == 0.
+		* specially process it.
+		*/
+		if (strcmp(name, "DW_ATE_unsigned_1") == 0)
+			bt->bit_size = 1;
+		else
+			bt->bit_size = attr_numeric(die, DW_AT_byte_size) * 8;
 		uint64_t encoding = attr_numeric(die, DW_AT_encoding);
 		bt->is_bool = encoding == DW_ATE_boolean;
 		bt->is_signed = encoding == DW_ATE_signed;
diff --git a/libbtf.c b/libbtf.c
index 9f7628304495..48ba57394090 100644
--- a/libbtf.c
+++ b/libbtf.c
@@ -367,13 +367,34 @@ static void btf_log_func_param(const struct btf_elf *btfe,
 	}
 }
 
+/* btf requires power-of-2 bytes, yet dwarf may have something like
+ * DW_ATE_unsigned_24 which encodes as 24 bits (3 bytes).
+ */
+static int bits_to_int_bytes(uint16_t bit_size)
+{
+       if (bit_size <= 8)
+               return 1;
+       if (bit_size <= 16)
+               return 2;
+       if (bit_size <= 32)
+               return 4;
+       if (bit_size <= 64)
+               return 8;
+       if (bit_size <= 128)
+               return 16;
+       if (bit_size <= 160)
+               return 20;
+       /* BTF supports upto 16byte int (__int128). */
+       return -1;
+}
+
 int32_t btf_elf__add_base_type(struct btf_elf *btfe, const struct base_type *bt,
 			       const char *name)
 {
 	struct btf *btf = btfe->btf;
 	const struct btf_type *t;
 	uint8_t encoding = 0;
-	int32_t id;
+	int32_t id, nbytes;
 
 	if (bt->is_signed) {
 		encoding = BTF_INT_SIGNED;
@@ -384,7 +405,13 @@ int32_t btf_elf__add_base_type(struct btf_elf *btfe, const struct base_type *bt,
 		return -1;
 	}
 
-	id = btf__add_int(btf, name, BITS_ROUNDUP_BYTES(bt->bit_size), encoding);
+	nbytes = bits_to_int_bytes(bt->bit_size);
+	if (nbytes < 0) {
+		fprintf(stderr, "not supported bit_size %hu\n", bt->bit_size);
+		return -1;
+	}
+
+	id = btf__add_int(btf, name, nbytes, encoding);
 	if (id < 0) {
 		btf_elf__log_err(btfe, BTF_KIND_INT, name, true, "Error emitting BTF type");
 	} else {