diff --git a/configure b/configure
index 8d849191db..4b808f9d17 100755
--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -4699,7 +4699,16 @@ roms=
 if test \( "$cpu" = "i386" -o "$cpu" = "x86_64" \) -a \
         "$targetos" != "Darwin" -a "$targetos" != "SunOS" -a \
         "$softmmu" = yes ; then
-  roms="optionrom"
+    # Different host OS linkers have different ideas about the name of the ELF
+    # emulation. Linux and OpenBSD use 'elf_i386'; FreeBSD uses the _fbsd
+    # variant; and Windows uses i386pe.
+    for emu in elf_i386 elf_i386_fbsd i386pe; do
+        if "$ld" -verbose 2>&1 | grep -q "^[[:space:]]*$emu[[:space:]]*$"; then
+            ld_i386_emulation="$emu"
+            roms="optionrom"
+            break
+        fi
+    done
 fi
 if test "$cpu" = "ppc64" -a "$targetos" != "Darwin" ; then
   roms="$roms spapr-rtas"
@@ -5539,6 +5548,7 @@ fi
 echo "LDFLAGS=$LDFLAGS" >> $config_host_mak
 echo "LDFLAGS_NOPIE=$LDFLAGS_NOPIE" >> $config_host_mak
 echo "LD_REL_FLAGS=$LD_REL_FLAGS" >> $config_host_mak
+echo "LD_I386_EMULATION=$ld_i386_emulation" >> $config_host_mak
 echo "LIBS+=$LIBS" >> $config_host_mak
 echo "LIBS_TOOLS+=$libs_tools" >> $config_host_mak
 echo "PTHREAD_LIB=$PTHREAD_LIB" >> $config_host_mak
diff --git a/pc-bios/optionrom/Makefile b/pc-bios/optionrom/Makefile
index 8aef152262..9bdc49798c 100644
--- a/pc-bios/optionrom/Makefile
+++ b/pc-bios/optionrom/Makefile
@@ -48,18 +48,8 @@ build-all: multiboot.bin linuxboot.bin linuxboot_dma.bin kvmvapic.bin
 %.o: %.S
 	$(call quiet-command,$(CPP) $(QEMU_INCLUDES) $(QEMU_DGFLAGS) -c -o - $< | $(AS) $(ASFLAGS) -o $@,"  AS    $(TARGET_DIR)$@")
 
-ifdef CONFIG_WIN32
-LD_EMULATION = i386pe
-else
-ifdef CONFIG_BSD
-LD_EMULATION = elf_i386_fbsd
-else
-LD_EMULATION = elf_i386
-endif
-endif
-
 %.img: %.o
-	$(call quiet-command,$(LD) $(LDFLAGS_NOPIE) -m $(LD_EMULATION) -T $(SRC_PATH)/pc-bios/optionrom/flat.lds -s -o $@ $<,"  Building $(TARGET_DIR)$@")
+	$(call quiet-command,$(LD) $(LDFLAGS_NOPIE) -m $(LD_I386_EMULATION) -T $(SRC_PATH)/pc-bios/optionrom/flat.lds -s -o $@ $<,"  Building $(TARGET_DIR)$@")
 
 %.raw: %.img
 	$(call quiet-command,$(OBJCOPY) -O binary -j .text $< $@,"  Building $(TARGET_DIR)$@")