diff --git a/pkgs/development/tools/misc/binutils/default.nix b/pkgs/development/tools/misc/binutils/default.nix
index 83982b1376e9..8e44a982067d 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/tools/misc/binutils/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/tools/misc/binutils/default.nix
@@ -48,6 +48,11 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     # there) and causes a cycle between the lib and bin outputs, so
     # get rid of it.
     ./no-plugins.patch
+
+    # Help bfd choose between elf32-littlearm, elf32-littlearm-symbian, and
+    # elf32-littlearm-vxworks in favor of the first.
+    # https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/30484#issuecomment-345472766
+    ./disambiguate-arm-targets.patch
   ];
 
   outputs = [ "out" "info" ];
diff --git a/pkgs/development/tools/misc/binutils/disambiguate-arm-targets.patch b/pkgs/development/tools/misc/binutils/disambiguate-arm-targets.patch
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..abbfa73da05d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/development/tools/misc/binutils/disambiguate-arm-targets.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+diff --git a/bfd/elf32-arm.c b/bfd/elf32-arm.c
+index 9f956d3..f5b61f1 100644
+--- a/bfd/elf32-arm.c
++++ b/bfd/elf32-arm.c
+@@ -19585,7 +19585,10 @@ elf32_arm_vxworks_final_write_processing (bfd *abfd, bfd_boolean linker)
+ #undef  ELF_MAXPAGESIZE
+ #define ELF_MAXPAGESIZE			0x1000
+ 
++/* Prioritize elf32-*arm (priority 1) over elf32-*arm-vxworks (priority 2) */
++#define elf_match_priority 2
+ #include "elf32-target.h"
++#undef  elf_match_priority
+ 
+ 
+ /* Merge backend specific data from an object file to the output
+@@ -19974,4 +19977,7 @@ elf32_arm_symbian_plt_sym_val (bfd_vma i, const asection *plt,
+ #undef  ELF_MAXPAGESIZE
+ #define ELF_MAXPAGESIZE			0x8000
+ 
++/* Prioritize elf32-*arm (priority 1) over elf32-*arm-symbian (priority 2) */
++#define elf_match_priority 2
+ #include "elf32-target.h"
++#undef  elf_match_priority