diff --git a/gdb/ChangeLog b/gdb/ChangeLog
index 2def55d883..65ba222512 100644
--- a/gdb/ChangeLog
+++ b/gdb/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+2012-03-05  Tom Tromey  <tromey@redhat.com>
+
+	* value.c (value_primitive_field): Don't fetch contents for
+	non-virtual bases.
+
 2012-03-05  Tom Tromey  <tromey@redhat.com>
 
 	* jv-valprint.c (java_value_print): Correctly compute 'obj_addr'.
diff --git a/gdb/value.c b/gdb/value.c
index bee6907413..e8eb33f340 100644
--- a/gdb/value.c
+++ b/gdb/value.c
@@ -2556,11 +2556,17 @@ value_primitive_field (struct value *arg1, int offset,
       if (VALUE_LVAL (arg1) == lval_register && value_lazy (arg1))
 	value_fetch_lazy (arg1);
 
-      boffset = baseclass_offset (arg_type, fieldno,
-				  value_contents (arg1),
-				  value_embedded_offset (arg1),
-				  value_address (arg1),
-				  arg1);
+      /* We special case virtual inheritance here because this
+	 requires access to the contents, which we would rather avoid
+	 for references to ordinary fields of unavailable values.  */
+      if (BASETYPE_VIA_VIRTUAL (arg_type, fieldno))
+	boffset = baseclass_offset (arg_type, fieldno,
+				    value_contents (arg1),
+				    value_embedded_offset (arg1),
+				    value_address (arg1),
+				    arg1);
+      else
+	boffset = TYPE_FIELD_BITPOS (arg_type, fieldno) / 8;
 
       if (value_lazy (arg1))
 	v = allocate_value_lazy (value_enclosing_type (arg1));