diff --git a/package/base/glibc/glibc.conf b/package/base/glibc/glibc.conf
index bed39267d..2be0df163 100644
--- a/package/base/glibc/glibc.conf
+++ b/package/base/glibc/glibc.conf
@@ -249,6 +249,30 @@ glibc_prepatch() {
 glibc_stage0() {
 	if [ $pkg_glibc_version = 23 ]
 	then
+		# .cross patches don't get applied automagically if we build a -cross- pkg
+		# maybe add $confdir/glibc23/*.patch.${pkg_glibc_cross:0:3} to the for loop ?
+		if [ -n "$pkg_glibc_cross" ] ; then
+			for i in $confdir/glibc23/*.patch.cross 
+			do
+				echo "Applying patch $i..."
+				patch -p1 < $i ; 
+			done
+		fi
+
+		# for mips*, tries to add -mabi. for headers, we don't have a compiler allowing that yet
+		# if cross-compiling. the values of _MIPS_SIM can be found in sysdeps/mips/sgidefs.h
+		if [ \( $arch = mips -a $crossnative = cross \) -o -n "$pkg_glibc_cross" ] ; then
+			patch -p1 < $confdir/glibc23/no-mabi-mips64.cross.diff
+			mv sysdeps/mips/mips32/Makefile sysdeps/mips/mips32/Makefile-x
+			echo "CC += -D_MIPS_SZPTR=32 -D_MIPS_SIM=1" > sysdeps/mips/mips32/Makefile
+			mv sysdeps/mips/mips64/n32/Makefile sysdeps/mips/mips64/n32/Makefile-x
+			echo "CC += -D_MIPS_SZPTR=64 -D_MIPS_SIM=2" > sysdeps/mips/mips64/n32/Makefile
+			echo "long-double-fcts = yes" >> sysdeps/mips/mips64/n32/Makefile
+			mv sysdeps/mips/mips64/n64/Makefile sysdeps/mips/mips64/n64/Makefile-x
+			echo "CC += -D_MIPS_SZPTR=64 -D_MIPS_SIM=3" > sysdeps/mips/mips64/n64/Makefile
+			echo "long-double-fcts = yes" >> sysdeps/mips/mips64/n64/Makefile
+		fi
+
 		mkdir -p objdir; cd objdir
 
 		confopt="${confopt% --target=*}"
@@ -261,12 +285,6 @@ glibc_stage0() {
 
 		eval "../configure --enable-add-ons"$ADDONS" $confopt"
 
-		# mips install-headers is broken - it passes -mabi={32,64} to the host compiler
-		if [ $arch = mips -a $crossnative = cross ] ; then
-			mv ../sysdeps/mips/mips32/Makefile ../sysdeps/mips/mips32/Makefile-x
-			echo "CC += -D_MIPS_SZPTR=32" > ../sysdeps/mips/mips32/Makefile
-		fi
-
 		make -k cross-compiling=yes install-headers || true
 		cp -v ../include/features.h $root/$prefix/include
 	fi
diff --git a/package/base/glibc/glibc23/no-mabi-mips64.cross.diff b/package/base/glibc/glibc23/no-mabi-mips64.cross.diff
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..c961fac8e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/package/base/glibc/glibc23/no-mabi-mips64.cross.diff
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+--- ./configure.orig	2004-09-18 07:23:18.600218296 +0200
++++ ./configure	2004-09-18 07:23:36.692467856 +0200
+@@ -1909,7 +1909,7 @@
+ 		if test $mips_config_abi != $mips_cc_abi; then
+ 		  # This won't make it to config.make, but we want to
+ 		  # set this in case configure tests depend on it.
+-		  CPPFLAGS="$CPPFLAGS -mabi=$mips_config_abi"
++		  echo "i am not setting -mabi as you are crosscompiling headers."
+ 		fi
+ 		;;
+ mips*)		base_machine=mips machine=mips/mips32/$machine ;;