diff --git a/package/libvips/Config.in b/package/libvips/Config.in
index 1a0d35c5cf..ad7a103714 100644
--- a/package/libvips/Config.in
+++ b/package/libvips/Config.in
@@ -3,6 +3,9 @@ config BR2_PACKAGE_LIBVIPS
 	depends on BR2_USE_WCHAR # gettext, libglib2
 	depends on BR2_TOOLCHAIN_HAS_THREADS # libglib2
 	depends on BR2_USE_MMU # fork()
+	# C++ support is required to build libvips
+	# https://github.com/jcupitt/libvips/issues/231
+	depends on BR2_INSTALL_LIBSTDCPP
 	select BR2_PACKAGE_LIBGLIB2
 	select BR2_PACKAGE_LIBXML2
 	select BR2_PACKAGE_GETTEXT if BR2_NEEDS_GETTEXT_IF_LOCALE
@@ -13,6 +16,7 @@ config BR2_PACKAGE_LIBVIPS
 
 	  http://www.vips.ecs.soton.ac.uk/
 
-comment "libvips needs a toolchain w/ wchar, threads"
+comment "libvips needs a toolchain w/ wchar, threads, C++"
         depends on BR2_USE_MMU
-        depends on !BR2_USE_WCHAR || !BR2_TOOLCHAIN_HAS_THREADS
+        depends on !BR2_USE_WCHAR || !BR2_TOOLCHAIN_HAS_THREADS || \
+		!BR2_INSTALL_LIBSTDCPP
diff --git a/package/libvips/libvips.mk b/package/libvips/libvips.mk
index 35e7684d31..1efe21a2df 100644
--- a/package/libvips/libvips.mk
+++ b/package/libvips/libvips.mk
@@ -33,11 +33,9 @@ LIBVIPS_DEPENDENCIES = \
 	host-pkgconf libglib2 \
 	libxml2 $(if $(BR2_NEEDS_GETTEXT_IF_LOCALE),gettext)
 
-ifeq ($(BR2_INSTALL_LIBSTDCPP),y)
+# --disable-cxx is broken upstream
+# https://github.com/jcupitt/libvips/issues/231
 LIBVIPS_CONF_OPTS += --enable-cxx
-else
-LIBVIPS_CONF_OPTS += --disable-cxx
-endif
 
 ifeq ($(BR2_PACKAGE_JPEG),y)
 LIBVIPS_CONF_OPTS += --with-jpeg