diff -Nrup a/sysdeps/i386/Makefile b/sysdeps/i386/Makefile
--- a/sysdeps/i386/Makefile	2012-06-05 07:42:49.000000000 -0600
+++ b/sysdeps/i386/Makefile	2012-06-07 12:15:21.826318641 -0600
@@ -62,6 +64,14 @@ endif
 
 ifneq (,$(filter -mno-tls-direct-seg-refs,$(CFLAGS)))
 defines += -DNO_TLS_DIRECT_SEG_REFS
+else
+# .a libraries are not performance critical and so we
+# build them without direct TLS segment references
+# always.
+CPPFLAGS-.o += -DNO_TLS_DIRECT_SEG_REFS
+CFLAGS-.o += -mno-tls-direct-seg-refs
+CPPFLAGS-.oS += -DNO_TLS_DIRECT_SEG_REFS
+CFLAGS-.oS += -mno-tls-direct-seg-refs
 endif
 
 ifeq ($(subdir),elf)