diff --git a/configure b/configure
index f509bce304..1ae5c950f0 100755
--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -2082,6 +2082,13 @@ probe_target_compiler() {
   fi
 }
 
+probe_target_compilers() {
+  for i; do
+    probe_target_compiler $i
+    test -n "$target_cc" && return 0
+  done
+}
+
 write_target_makefile() {
   if test -n "$target_cc"; then
     echo "CC=$target_cc"
@@ -2190,6 +2197,10 @@ if test "$QEMU_GA_VERSION" = ""; then
     QEMU_GA_VERSION=$(cat $source_path/VERSION)
 fi
 
+
+#######################################
+# cross-compiled firmware targets
+
 # Set up build tree symlinks that point back into the source tree
 # (these can be both files and directories).
 # Caution: avoid adding files or directories here using wildcards. This
@@ -2216,19 +2227,27 @@ done
 
 # Mac OS X ships with a broken assembler
 roms=
-if { test "$cpu" = "i386" || test "$cpu" = "x86_64"; } && \
+probe_target_compilers i386 x86_64
+if test -n "$target_cc" &&
         test "$targetos" != "darwin" && test "$targetos" != "sunos" && \
         test "$targetos" != "haiku" && test "$softmmu" = yes ; then
     # Different host OS linkers have different ideas about the name of the ELF
     # emulation. Linux and OpenBSD/amd64 use 'elf_i386'; FreeBSD uses the _fbsd
     # variant; OpenBSD/i386 uses the _obsd variant; and Windows uses i386pe.
     for emu in elf_i386 elf_i386_fbsd elf_i386_obsd i386pe; do
-        if "$ld" -verbose 2>&1 | grep -q "^[[:space:]]*$emu[[:space:]]*$"; then
+        if "$target_ld" -verbose 2>&1 | grep -q "^[[:space:]]*$emu[[:space:]]*$"; then
             ld_i386_emulation="$emu"
-            roms="optionrom"
             break
         fi
     done
+    if test -n "$ld_i386_emulation"; then
+        roms="optionrom"
+        config_mak=pc-bios/optionrom/config.mak
+        echo "# Automatically generated by configure - do not modify" > $config_mak
+        echo "TOPSRC_DIR=$source_path" >> $config_mak
+        echo "LD_I386_EMULATION=$ld_i386_emulation" >> $config_mak
+        write_target_makefile >> $config_mak
+    fi
 fi
 
 # Only build s390-ccw bios if the compiler has -march=z900 or -march=z10
@@ -2381,7 +2400,6 @@ echo "GLIB_LIBS=$glib_libs" >> $config_host_mak
 echo "GLIB_BINDIR=$glib_bindir" >> $config_host_mak
 echo "GLIB_VERSION=$(pkg-config --modversion glib-2.0)" >> $config_host_mak
 echo "QEMU_LDFLAGS=$QEMU_LDFLAGS" >> $config_host_mak
-echo "LD_I386_EMULATION=$ld_i386_emulation" >> $config_host_mak
 echo "STRIP=$strip" >> $config_host_mak
 echo "EXESUF=$EXESUF" >> $config_host_mak
 
@@ -2571,10 +2589,6 @@ for target in $target_list; do
 done
 echo "TCG_TESTS_TARGETS=$tcg_tests_targets" >> $makefile)
 
-config_mak=pc-bios/optionrom/config.mak
-echo "# Automatically generated by configure - do not modify" > $config_mak
-echo "TOPSRC_DIR=$source_path" >> $config_mak
-
 if test "$skip_meson" = no; then
   cross="config-meson.cross.new"
   meson_quote() {
diff --git a/pc-bios/optionrom/Makefile b/pc-bios/optionrom/Makefile
index 17ccc76241..f639915b4f 100644
--- a/pc-bios/optionrom/Makefile
+++ b/pc-bios/optionrom/Makefile
@@ -6,7 +6,6 @@ all: multiboot.bin multiboot_dma.bin linuxboot.bin linuxboot_dma.bin kvmvapic.bi
 # Dummy command so that make thinks it has done something
 	@true
 
-include ../../config-host.mak
 CFLAGS = -O2 -g
 
 quiet-command = $(if $(V),$1,$(if $(2),@printf "  %-7s %s\n" $2 $3 && $1, @$1))
@@ -44,7 +43,6 @@ Wa = -Wa,
 override ASFLAGS += -32
 override CFLAGS += $(call cc-option, $(Wa)-32)
 
-LD_I386_EMULATION ?= elf_i386
 override LDFLAGS = -m $(LD_I386_EMULATION) -T $(SRC_DIR)/flat.lds
 
 pvh.img: pvh.o pvh_main.o