diff --git a/gnu/local.mk b/gnu/local.mk
index adccab313e..f754801613 100644
--- a/gnu/local.mk
+++ b/gnu/local.mk
@@ -693,6 +693,7 @@ dist_patch_DATA =						\
   %D%/packages/patches/mcrypt-CVE-2012-4409.patch			\
   %D%/packages/patches/mcrypt-CVE-2012-4426.patch			\
   %D%/packages/patches/mcrypt-CVE-2012-4527.patch			\
+  %D%/packages/patches/mesa-wayland-egl-symbols-check-mips.patch	\
   %D%/packages/patches/metabat-remove-compilation-date.patch	\
   %D%/packages/patches/mhash-keygen-test-segfault.patch		\
   %D%/packages/patches/mpc123-initialize-ao.patch		\
diff --git a/gnu/packages/gl.scm b/gnu/packages/gl.scm
index 54ffb386e0..3b5c955ab2 100644
--- a/gnu/packages/gl.scm
+++ b/gnu/packages/gl.scm
@@ -203,7 +203,15 @@ also known as DXTn or DXTC) for Mesa.")
                             version "/mesa-" version ".tar.xz"))
         (sha256
          (base32
-          "12b3i59xdn2in2hchrkgh4fwij8zhznibx976l3pdj3qkyvlzcms"))))
+          "12b3i59xdn2in2hchrkgh4fwij8zhznibx976l3pdj3qkyvlzcms"))
+        (patches
+         ;; XXX To prevent a large number of rebuilds on other systems,
+         ;; apply the following patch on MIPS systems only.  In the next
+         ;; core-updates cycle, this patch could be applied on all platforms.
+         (if (string-prefix? "mips" (or (%current-target-system)
+                                        (%current-system)))
+             (search-patches "mesa-wayland-egl-symbols-check-mips.patch")
+             '()))))
     (build-system gnu-build-system)
     (propagated-inputs
       `(("glproto" ,glproto)
diff --git a/gnu/packages/patches/mesa-wayland-egl-symbols-check-mips.patch b/gnu/packages/patches/mesa-wayland-egl-symbols-check-mips.patch
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..aa2278697e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/gnu/packages/patches/mesa-wayland-egl-symbols-check-mips.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+Fix 'wayland-egl-symbols-check' on mips64el-linux, where an additional symbol
+(_ftext) is present in libwayland-egl.so.
+
+Patch by Mark H Weaver <mhw@netris.org>
+
+--- mesa-12.0.1/src/egl/wayland/wayland-egl/wayland-egl-symbols-check.orig	2016-01-18 02:39:25.000000000 -0500
++++ mesa-12.0.1/src/egl/wayland/wayland-egl/wayland-egl-symbols-check	2016-10-24 16:25:07.110721426 -0400
+@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
+ wl_egl_window_destroy
+ wl_egl_window_get_attached_size
+ _fini
++_ftext
+ _init
+ EOF
+ done)