diff --git a/gcc/ChangeLog b/gcc/ChangeLog
index 03a624c8f59..5d9a80a922c 100644
--- a/gcc/ChangeLog
+++ b/gcc/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+2000-08-31  J. David Anglin  <dave@hiauly1.hia.nrc.ca>
+
+	* gthr-dce.h (__gthread_objc_mutex_allocate): Create a pthread_mutex_t
+	object before calling pthread_mutex_init.
+
 2000-09-02  Alexandre Oliva  <aoliva@redhat.com>
 
 	* config/sh/t-elf, config/sh/crt1.asm, config/sh/crti.asm,
diff --git a/gcc/gthr-dce.h b/gcc/gthr-dce.h
index 199dfe66b40..c2c24cdfe31 100644
--- a/gcc/gthr-dce.h
+++ b/gcc/gthr-dce.h
@@ -274,10 +274,18 @@ __gthread_objc_thread_get_data(void)
 static inline int
 __gthread_objc_mutex_allocate(objc_mutex_t mutex)
 {
-  if (__gthread_active_p ()
-      && pthread_mutex_init((pthread_mutex_t *)mutex->backend,
+  if (__gthread_active_p ())
+    {
+      mutex->backend = objc_malloc(sizeof(pthread_mutex_t));
+
+      if (pthread_mutex_init((pthread_mutex_t *)mutex->backend,
       			    pthread_mutexattr_default))
-    return -1;
+        {
+          objc_free(mutex->backend);
+          mutex->backend = NULL;
+          return -1;
+        }
+    }
 
   return 0;
 }