diff --git a/base/gcc/gcc.conf b/base/gcc/gcc.conf
index c2a1c293c..74e87fbe2 100644
--- a/base/gcc/gcc.conf
+++ b/base/gcc/gcc.conf
@@ -58,7 +58,10 @@ configscript="../configure"
 
 # See http://gcc.gnu.org/gcc-3.2/c++-abi.html
 # and http://www.codesourcery.com/cxx-abi/.
-if [ "$arch_machine" != "i386" ]; then
+if [ "$SDECFG_CROSSBUILD" = 1 ]; then
+	# FIXME: stage 1 c++ packages fail if this is enabled
+	var_append confopt ' ' "--disable-__cxa_atexit"
+elif [ "$arch_machine" != "i386" ]; then
 	var_append confopt ' ' "--enable-__cxa_atexit"
 else
 	var_append confopt ' ' "--disable-__cxa_atexit"