diff --git a/pkgs/development/compilers/gcc-static-4.1/builder.sh b/pkgs/development/compilers/gcc-static-4.1/builder.sh
index 5db46d81ffb..deed3d82e62 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/compilers/gcc-static-4.1/builder.sh
+++ b/pkgs/development/compilers/gcc-static-4.1/builder.sh
@@ -14,8 +14,7 @@ if test "$noSysDirs" = "1"; then
 
     # Figure out what extra flags to pass to the gcc compilers being
     # generated to make sure that they use our glibc.
-    if test -e $NIX_GCC/nix-support/orig-glibc; then
-        glibc=$(cat $NIX_GCC/nix-support/orig-glibc)
+    if test -n $glibc; then
 
         # Ugh.  Copied from gcc-wrapper/builder.sh.  We can't just
         # source in $NIX_GCC/nix-support/add-flags, since that would
@@ -37,6 +36,10 @@ if test "$noSysDirs" = "1"; then
         echo "NIX_GLIBC_FLAGS_SET=1" > $hook
         export NIX_LD_WRAPPER_START_HOOK=$hook
 
+        # Use *real* header files, otherwise a limits.h is generated
+        # that does not include Glibc's limits.h (notably missing
+        # SSIZE_MAX, which breaks the build).
+        export NIX_FIXINC_DUMMY=$glibc/include
     fi
 
     export NIX_EXTRA_CFLAGS=$extraCFlags
@@ -65,7 +68,7 @@ preConfigure() {
 
     export LDFLFAGS="-static"
     configureScript=../$sourceRoot/configure
-    configureFlags="--enable-languages=c"
+    configureFlags="--enable-languages=c --disable-libstdcxx-pch"
 }
 
 
diff --git a/pkgs/development/compilers/gcc-static-4.1/default.nix b/pkgs/development/compilers/gcc-static-4.1/default.nix
index dae40313cc9..3415caa799e 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/compilers/gcc-static-4.1/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/compilers/gcc-static-4.1/default.nix
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 { stdenv, fetchurl
 , langC ? true, langCC ? true, langF77 ? false
 , profiledCompiler ? false
+, glibc
 }:
 
 assert langC;
@@ -12,7 +13,7 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation {
     url = http://nix.cs.uu.nl/dist/tarballs/gcc-4.1.1.tar.bz2;
     md5 = "ad9f97a4d04982ccf4fd67cb464879f3";
   };
-  patches = [./no-sys-dirs.patch];
-  inherit langC langCC langF77 profiledCompiler;
+  patches = [./pass-cxxcpp.patch ./no-sys-dirs.patch];
+  inherit langC langCC langF77 profiledCompiler glibc;
   noSysDirs = 1;
 }
diff --git a/pkgs/development/compilers/gcc-static-4.1/pass-cxxcpp.patch b/pkgs/development/compilers/gcc-static-4.1/pass-cxxcpp.patch
index 4f9a29ae51b..9b0676d4fdc 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/compilers/gcc-static-4.1/pass-cxxcpp.patch
+++ b/pkgs/development/compilers/gcc-static-4.1/pass-cxxcpp.patch
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ diff -rc gcc-orig/Makefile.in gcc-4.1.1/Makefile.in
   RAW_CXX_TARGET_EXPORTS = \
   	$(BASE_TARGET_EXPORTS) \
   	CXX_FOR_TARGET="$(RAW_CXX_FOR_TARGET)"; export CXX_FOR_TARGET; \
-! 	CXX="$(RAW_CXX_FOR_TARGET)"; export CXX; \
+! 	CXX="$(RAW_CXX_FOR_TARGET) $(CFLAGS_FOR_BUILD)"; export CXX; \
 ! 	CXXCPP="$(RAW_CXX_FOR_TARGET) $(CFLAGS_FOR_BUILD) -E"; export CXXCPP;
   
   NORMAL_TARGET_EXPORTS = \
diff --git a/pkgs/stdenv/linux/make-bootstrap-tools.nix b/pkgs/stdenv/linux/make-bootstrap-tools.nix
index 4ed60b06c83..93e33ff87c0 100644
--- a/pkgs/stdenv/linux/make-bootstrap-tools.nix
+++ b/pkgs/stdenv/linux/make-bootstrap-tools.nix
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ let
     binutils = pkgsDiet.binutils217;
     
     gcc = import ../../development/compilers/gcc-static-4.1 {
-      inherit (pkgs) fetchurl stdenv;
+      inherit (pkgs) fetchurl stdenv glibc;
       profiledCompiler = false;
       langCC = false;
     };