diff --git a/packages/network/ethtool/build b/packages/network/ethtool/build
index 94378c7920..6f3c8d4d29 100755
--- a/packages/network/ethtool/build
+++ b/packages/network/ethtool/build
@@ -2,6 +2,8 @@
 
 . config/options $1
 
+LDFLAGS="$LDFLAGS -fwhole-program"
+
 cd $PKG_BUILD
 
 ./configure --host=$TARGET_NAME \
diff --git a/packages/network/ethtool/meta b/packages/network/ethtool/meta
index 4e29ffec9d..c18dede8b9 100644
--- a/packages/network/ethtool/meta
+++ b/packages/network/ethtool/meta
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 PKG_NAME="ethtool"
-PKG_VERSION="2.6.35"
+PKG_VERSION="2.6.36"
 PKG_REV="1"
 PKG_ARCH="any"
 PKG_LICENSE="GPL"