diff --git a/toolchain/toolchain-common.in b/toolchain/toolchain-common.in
index 46970a68e3..0907c5e830 100644
--- a/toolchain/toolchain-common.in
+++ b/toolchain/toolchain-common.in
@@ -378,15 +378,30 @@ config BR2_TOOLCHAIN_HAS_SYNC_8
 	default y if BR2_TOOLCHAIN_ARM_HAS_SYNC_8
 	default y if BR2_TOOLCHAIN_X86_HAS_SYNC_8
 
+# libatomic is available since gcc 4.8, when thread support is
+# enabled.
+config BR2_TOOLCHAIN_HAS_LIBATOMIC
+	bool
+	default y if BR2_TOOLCHAIN_GCC_AT_LEAST_4_8 && \
+		BR2_TOOLCHAIN_HAS_THREADS
+
 # __atomic intrinsics are available:
 # - with gcc 4.8, either through built-ins or libatomic, on all
-#   architectures
+#   architectures. Since we don't want to separate the cases where
+#   libatomic is needed vs. not needed, we simplify thing and only
+#   support situations where libatomic is available, even if on some
+#   architectures libatomic is not strictly needed as all __atomic
+#   intrinsics might be built-in. The only case where libatomic is
+#   missing entirely is when the toolchain does not have support for
+#   threads. However, a package that does not need threads but still
+#   uses atomics is quite a corner case, which does not warrant the
+#   added complexity.
 # - with gcc 4.7, libatomic did not exist, so only built-ins are
 #   available. This means that __atomic can only be used in a subset
 #   of the architectures
 config BR2_TOOLCHAIN_HAS_ATOMIC
 	bool
-	default y if BR2_TOOLCHAIN_GCC_AT_LEAST_4_8
+	default y if BR2_TOOLCHAIN_HAS_LIBATOMIC
 	default y if BR2_TOOLCHAIN_GCC_AT_LEAST_4_7 && BR2_arm
 	default y if BR2_TOOLCHAIN_GCC_AT_LEAST_4_7 && BR2_armeb
 	default y if BR2_TOOLCHAIN_GCC_AT_LEAST_4_7 && BR2_xtensa