diff --git a/.gitmodules b/.gitmodules
index da3426a76e3d..7b140195191d 100644
--- a/.gitmodules
+++ b/.gitmodules
@@ -1,19 +1,4 @@
-[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
+[submodule "tomlc99"]
+	path = tools/rimage/tomlc99
+	url = https://github.com/thesofproject/tomlc99.git
+	branch = master
diff --git a/rimage b/rimage
deleted file mode 160000
index 4fb9fe00575b..000000000000
--- a/rimage
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-Subproject commit 4fb9fe00575bc2e9f14570803d811987fb27f010
diff --git a/tools/rimage/.gitmodules b/tools/rimage/.gitmodules
deleted file mode 100644
index 5ade8be2a063..000000000000
--- a/tools/rimage/.gitmodules
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,4 +0,0 @@
-[submodule "tomlc99"]
-	path = tomlc99
-	url = https://github.com/thesofproject/tomlc99.git
-	branch = master
diff --git a/west.yml b/west.yml
index 5046cf4c4e51..860ef793384f 100644
--- a/west.yml
+++ b/west.yml
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ manifest:
   # (git log 4e1d3ba61abd3 -- rimage/)
 
   # WARNING: for backwards compatibility with non-Zephyr platforms,
-  # rimage and toml99 are STILL git submodules! Every time you change
+  # toml99 is STILL a git submodule! Every time you change
   # their `revision` revision here you MUST keep their git submodules in
   # sync. This is as simple as `git add rimage` before committing (+
   # `git commit --amend` if you forgot and already committed this
@@ -33,14 +33,9 @@ manifest:
   # https://github.com/zephyrproject-rtos/zephyr/issues/58212
 
   projects:
-    - name: rimage
-      repo-path: rimage
-      path: sof/rimage
-      revision: 4fb9fe00575bc2e9f14570803d811987fb27f010
-
     - name: tomlc99
       repo-path: tomlc99
-      path: sof/rimage/tomlc99
+      path: sof/tools/rimage/tomlc99
       revision: e3a03f5ec7d8d33be705c5ce8a632d998ce9b4d1
 
     - name: zephyr