diff --git a/architecture/mips/archtest.sh b/architecture/mips/archtest.sh
index 3b894a5d7..c13497af4 100644
--- a/architecture/mips/archtest.sh
+++ b/architecture/mips/archtest.sh
@@ -16,5 +16,7 @@ case "$ROCKCFG_MIPS_ABI" in
 	arch_machine=mips64 
 	arch_target="${arch_machine}${arch_endianess}-unknown-linux-gnu"
 	arch_target32="mips${arch_endianess}-unknown-linux-gnu"
+	BUILD32="-mabi=32"
+	BUILD64="-mabi=$ROCKCFG_MIPS_ABI"
 	;;
 esac
diff --git a/architecture/x86/archtest.sh b/architecture/x86/archtest.sh
index c1fd56e72..26d59ba99 100644
--- a/architecture/x86/archtest.sh
+++ b/architecture/x86/archtest.sh
@@ -15,6 +15,8 @@ else
   arch_sizeof_char_p=8
   arch_machine="x86_64"
   arch_target32="i686-pc-linux-gnu"
+  BUILD32="-m32"
+  BUILD64="-m64"
 fi
 
 arch_target="${arch_machine}-unknown-linux-gnu"
diff --git a/package/base/gcc/gcc.conf b/package/base/gcc/gcc.conf
index deea1b42c..7759cd441 100644
--- a/package/base/gcc/gcc.conf
+++ b/package/base/gcc/gcc.conf
@@ -180,6 +180,13 @@ fi
 
 if [ "$ROCKCFG_MULTILIB" = 0 ] ; then
 	var_append extraconfopt " " "--disable-multilib"
+
+	if [ "$arch_machine" = mips64 ] ; then
+		# When building only 64-bit libraries and programs, tell gcc
+		# to build its own libraries with -mabi=64 too. --with-abi is
+		# available in gcc34 and above.
+		var_append extraconfopt " " "--with-abi=64"
+	fi
 fi
 
 custmain="custmain"
diff --git a/package/base/gcc/parse-config b/package/base/gcc/parse-config
index ff99e8f0b..df7ad5baf 100644
--- a/package/base/gcc/parse-config
+++ b/package/base/gcc/parse-config
@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ unset x y z
 if [ $stagelevel -ge 1 ] ; then
 	if [[ "$xpkg" = *-32bit ]] ; then
 		export CC="${CC} ${BUILD32}" CXX="${CXX} ${BUILD32}"
-	elif [ "$ROCKCFG_MULTILIB" = 1 ] ; then
+	elif [ "$BUILD64" ] ; then
 		export CC="${CC} ${BUILD64}" CXX="${CXX} ${BUILD64}"
 	fi
 fi
diff --git a/package/base/glibc/glibc.conf b/package/base/glibc/glibc.conf
index 2258c6de7..c983698a1 100644
--- a/package/base/glibc/glibc.conf
+++ b/package/base/glibc/glibc.conf
@@ -29,13 +29,11 @@ pkg_glibc_cross=""
 pkg_glibc_headers_only=0
 pkg_glibc_cc=""
 
-if [ "$ROCKCFG_MULTILIB" = 1 ] ; then
-	if [[ "$xpkg" = *-32bit ]] ; then
-		pkg_glibc_cc="$BUILD32"
-		pkg_glibc_host="$arch_target32"
-	else
-		pkg_glibc_cc="$BUILD64"
-	fi
+if [[ "$xpkg" = *-32bit ]] ; then
+	pkg_glibc_cc="$BUILD32"
+	pkg_glibc_host="$arch_target32"
+elif [ "$BUILD64" ] ; then
+	pkg_glibc_cc="$BUILD64"
 fi
 
 prefix="usr"
@@ -69,7 +67,10 @@ if [ $stagelevel -le 2 ]; then
                      $confdir/glibc$pkg_glibc_version/*.patch.cross.$arch 2>/dev/null | tr '\n' ' '`"
 fi
 
-configscript="../glibc-*/configure"
+# Use absolute path to configure script as e.g. the path to
+# ports/sysdeps/unix/sysv/linux/mips/mips64/ldd-rewrite.sed is based on it
+# and will point to the wrong location otherwise.
+configscript="$builddir/glibc-*/configure"
 if [ $stagelevel -eq 0 ] ; then
 	pkg_glibc_headers_only=1
 
@@ -114,10 +115,18 @@ if [ "$pkg_glibc_cross" ] ; then
 	fi
 fi
 
-# Fix for mips when building glibc headers.
-if [[ "$pkg_glibc_host" == mips* ]] ; then
-	if [ $pkg_glibc_headers_only = 1 ] ; then
-		var_append patchfiles " " "$confdir/glibc$pkg_glibc_version/glibc-*-mips-mabi-stage0.diff"
+# Fix for mips/mips64 when building glibc headers.
+if [ $pkg_glibc_headers_only = 1 ] ; then
+	if [[ "$arch_machine" == mips* ]] ; then
+		# don't pass mips specific options to build C compiler
+		var_append BUILDCC_WRAPPER_REMOVE " " "-mabi=*"
+		# installing headers fails if _MIPS_SZPTR (and thus _WORDSIZE)
+		# is not defined, with: ./bits/types.h:129:3: error: #error
+		if [[ "$arch_machine" == mips64* ]] ; then
+			var_append BUILDCC_WRAPPER_APPEND " " "-D_MIPS_SZPTR=64"
+		else
+			var_append BUILDCC_WRAPPER_APPEND " " "-D_MIPS_SZPTR=32"
+		fi
 	fi
 fi
 
diff --git a/package/base/glibc/glibc27/glibc-2.7-mips-mabi-stage0.diff b/package/base/glibc/glibc27/glibc-2.7-mips-mabi-stage0.diff
deleted file mode 100644
index fea1c92ab..000000000
--- a/package/base/glibc/glibc27/glibc-2.7-mips-mabi-stage0.diff
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,14 +0,0 @@
-In stage 0 glibc configure tries to call the build system gcc with -mabi=32,
-causing test failures. Also set _MIPS_SZPTR for 32bit builds since it is not
-defined elsewhere.
-
-See http://sourceware.org/ml/crossgcc/2005-07/msg00036.html and
-http://sourceware.org/ml/crossgcc/2008-01/msg00007.html
-
---- glibc-2.7/ports/sysdeps/mips/mips32/Makefile-orig	2003-03-29 09:15:28.000000000 +0100
-+++ glibc-2.7/ports/sysdeps/mips/mips32/Makefile	2008-10-06 03:29:36.000000000 +0200
-@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
- ifeq ($(filter -mabi=32,$(CC)),)
--CC += -mabi=32
-+CC += -D"_MIPS_SZPTR=32"
- endif
diff --git a/scripts/parse-config b/scripts/parse-config
index 523b83ce1..81f6c470f 100644
--- a/scripts/parse-config
+++ b/scripts/parse-config
@@ -134,7 +134,6 @@ export LC_ALL=C; umask 022
 # export BUILDCXX="c++" BUILD_CXX="c++" HOSTCXX="c++" HOST_CXX="c++"
 export BUILDCC="gcc"   BUILD_CC="gcc"   HOSTCC="gcc"   HOST_CC="gcc"
 export BUILDCXX="g++" BUILD_CXX="g++" HOSTCXX="g++" HOST_CXX="g++"
-export BUILD32="-m32" BUILD64="-m64"
 
 if [ "$ROCKCFG_LINGUAS" == "all" ] ; then
 	unset LINGUAS