diff --git a/toolchain/toolchain-external/toolchain-external.mk b/toolchain/toolchain-external/toolchain-external.mk
index 8de324726e..ad258b86be 100644
--- a/toolchain/toolchain-external/toolchain-external.mk
+++ b/toolchain/toolchain-external/toolchain-external.mk
@@ -138,8 +138,10 @@ TOOLCHAIN_EXTERNAL_LIBS += $(call qstrip,$(BR2_TOOLCHAIN_EXTRA_EXTERNAL_LIBS))
 
 
 TOOLCHAIN_EXTERNAL_PREFIX = $(call qstrip,$(BR2_TOOLCHAIN_EXTERNAL_PREFIX))
+TOOLCHAIN_EXTERNAL_DOWNLOAD_INSTALL_DIR = $(HOST_DIR)/opt/ext-toolchain
+
 ifeq ($(BR2_TOOLCHAIN_EXTERNAL_DOWNLOAD),y)
-TOOLCHAIN_EXTERNAL_INSTALL_DIR = $(HOST_DIR)/opt/ext-toolchain
+TOOLCHAIN_EXTERNAL_INSTALL_DIR = $(TOOLCHAIN_EXTERNAL_DOWNLOAD_INSTALL_DIR)
 else
 TOOLCHAIN_EXTERNAL_INSTALL_DIR = $(call qstrip,$(BR2_TOOLCHAIN_EXTERNAL_PATH))
 endif
@@ -454,21 +456,29 @@ TOOLCHAIN_EXTERNAL_ACTUAL_SOURCE_TARBALL ?= \
 	$(subst -i686-pc-linux-gnu.tar.bz2,.src.tar.bz2,$(subst -i686-pc-linux-gnu-i386-linux.tar.bz2,-i686-pc-linux-gnu.src.tar.bz2,$(TOOLCHAIN_EXTERNAL_SOURCE)))
 endif
 
+# In fact, we don't need to download the toolchain, since it is already
+# available on the system, so force the site and source to be empty so
+# that nothing will be downloaded/extracted.
+ifeq ($(BR2_TOOLCHAIN_EXTERNAL_PREINSTALLED),y)
+TOOLCHAIN_EXTERNAL_SITE =
+TOOLCHAIN_EXTERNAL_SOURCE =
+endif
+
 TOOLCHAIN_EXTERNAL_ADD_TOOLCHAIN_DEPENDENCY = NO
 
 TOOLCHAIN_EXTERNAL_INSTALL_STAGING = YES
 
 # Normal handling of downloaded toolchain tarball extraction.
-ifneq ($(TOOLCHAIN_EXTERNAL_SOURCE),)
+ifeq ($(BR2_TOOLCHAIN_EXTERNAL_DOWNLOAD),y)
 TOOLCHAIN_EXTERNAL_EXCLUDES = usr/lib/locale/*
 
 # As a regular package, the toolchain gets extracted in $(@D), but
 # since it's actually a fairly special package, we need it to be moved
-# into TOOLCHAIN_EXTERNAL_INSTALL_DIR.
+# into TOOLCHAIN_EXTERNAL_DOWNLOAD_INSTALL_DIR.
 define TOOLCHAIN_EXTERNAL_MOVE
-	rm -rf $(TOOLCHAIN_EXTERNAL_INSTALL_DIR)/*
-	mkdir -p $(TOOLCHAIN_EXTERNAL_INSTALL_DIR)
-	mv $(@D)/* $(TOOLCHAIN_EXTERNAL_INSTALL_DIR)/
+	rm -rf $(TOOLCHAIN_EXTERNAL_DOWNLOAD_INSTALL_DIR)
+	mkdir -p $(TOOLCHAIN_EXTERNAL_DOWNLOAD_INSTALL_DIR)
+	mv $(@D)/* $(TOOLCHAIN_EXTERNAL_DOWNLOAD_INSTALL_DIR)/
 endef
 TOOLCHAIN_EXTERNAL_POST_EXTRACT_HOOKS += \
 	TOOLCHAIN_EXTERNAL_MOVE