diff --git a/package/jsaw/gcl/gcl.conf b/package/jsaw/gcl/gcl.conf
index 7cff80dfe..8843bdbf7 100644
--- a/package/jsaw/gcl/gcl.conf
+++ b/package/jsaw/gcl/gcl.conf
@@ -31,3 +31,6 @@ if [ "$ROCKCFG_DEFAULT_CC" = "gcc34" ]; then
 	var_remove_regex GCC_WRAPPER_INSERT " " "-O.*"
 	var_remove_regex GCC_WRAPPER_REMOVE " " "-O.*"
 fi
+
+# a workaround for newer binutils
+var_append confopt " " "--disable-statsysbfd --enable-locbfd"