diff --git a/build/scripts/build_cross_tools_gcc4 b/build/scripts/build_cross_tools_gcc4
index 163bb7ed50..97e834ed81 100755
--- a/build/scripts/build_cross_tools_gcc4
+++ b/build/scripts/build_cross_tools_gcc4
@@ -141,6 +141,11 @@ fi
 # to the VCS).
 find "$binutilsSourceDir" "$gccSourceDir" -name \*.info -print0 | xargs -0 touch
 
+# touch all configure files in order to avoid them being auto-rebuilt,
+# as this often fails because the host system does not have the exact
+# version of autofools that GCC wants
+find "$binutilsSourceDir" "$gccSourceDir" -name configure -print0 | xargs -0 touch
+
 # create the object and installation directories for the cross compilation tools
 objDir="${installDir}-build"
 binutilsObjDir="$objDir/binutils"