diff --git a/gdb/ChangeLog b/gdb/ChangeLog
index fc9535be50..3ea61e115a 100644
--- a/gdb/ChangeLog
+++ b/gdb/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+Wed Dec  6 16:16:18 1995  Stu Grossman  (grossman@cirdan.cygnus.com)
+
+	* remote-mips.c (mips_receive_header):  Allow mips_syn_garbage to be
+	user-settable (via set syn-garbage-limit).  Setting it to -1 makes
+	it unlimited.
+
 Tue Dec  5 18:33:43 1995  Brendan Kehoe  <brendan@lisa.cygnus.com>
 
 	* gdbtypes.c (check_stub_method): Make sure we get back a function
diff --git a/gdb/remote-mips.c b/gdb/remote-mips.c
index f6600b1424..db3223b6fc 100644
--- a/gdb/remote-mips.c
+++ b/gdb/remote-mips.c
@@ -509,7 +509,8 @@ mips_receive_header (hdr, pgarbage, ch, timeout)
 		}
 
 	      ++*pgarbage;
-	      if (*pgarbage > mips_syn_garbage)
+	      if (mips_syn_garbage > 0
+		  && *pgarbage > mips_syn_garbage)
 		mips_error ("Debug protocol failure:  more than %d characters before a sync.", 
 			    mips_syn_garbage);
 	    }
@@ -2169,4 +2170,14 @@ _initialize_remote_mips ()
 This is the number of seconds to wait for an acknowledgement to a packet\n\
 before resending the packet.", &setlist),
 	&showlist);
+
+  add_show_from_set (
+    add_set_cmd ("syn-garbage-limit", no_class, var_zinteger,
+		 (char *) &mips_syn_garbage,
+"Set the maximum number of characters to ignore when scanning for a SYN.\n\
+This is the maximum number of characters GDB will ignore when trying to\n\
+synchronize with the remote system.  A value of -1 means that there is no limit\n\
+(Note that these characters are printed out even though they are ignored.)",
+		 &setlist),
+		     &showlist);
 }