diff -up pypy-pypy-release-1.7/pypy/translator/platform/linux.py.configure-fedora pypy-pypy-release-1.7/pypy/translator/platform/linux.py
--- pypy-pypy-release-1.7/pypy/translator/platform/linux.py.configure-fedora	2011-11-19 02:44:54.000000000 -0500
+++ pypy-pypy-release-1.7/pypy/translator/platform/linux.py	2011-11-21 13:07:03.454240019 -0500
@@ -1,15 +1,21 @@
 """Support for Linux."""
 
+import os
 import sys
 from pypy.translator.platform.posix import BasePosix
 
+CFLAGS = ['-O3', '-pthread', '-fomit-frame-pointer',
+          '-Wall', '-Wno-unused']
+if os.environ.get('CFLAGS', None):
+    CFLAGS.extend(os.environ['CFLAGS'].split())
+CFLAGS = tuple(CFLAGS)
+
 class BaseLinux(BasePosix):
     name = "linux"
     
     link_flags = ('-pthread',)
     extra_libs = ('-lrt',)
-    cflags = ('-O3', '-pthread', '-fomit-frame-pointer',
-              '-Wall', '-Wno-unused')
+    cflags = CFLAGS
     standalone_only = ()
     shared_only = ('-fPIC',)
     so_ext = 'so'
@@ -26,13 +32,14 @@ class BaseLinux(BasePosix):
         return self._pkg_config("libffi", "--libs-only-L",
                                 ['/usr/lib/libffi'])
 
-    def library_dirs_for_libffi_a(self):
-        # places where we need to look for libffi.a
-        # XXX obscuuure!  only look for libffi.a if run with translate.py
-        if 'translate' in sys.modules:
-            return self.library_dirs_for_libffi() + ['/usr/lib']
-        else:
-            return []
+    # Fedora, at least, has the shared version but not the static:
+    #def library_dirs_for_libffi_a(self):
+    #    # places where we need to look for libffi.a
+    #    # XXX obscuuure!  only look for libffi.a if run with translate.py
+    #    if 'translate' in sys.modules:
+    #        return self.library_dirs_for_libffi() + ['/usr/lib']
+    #    else:
+    #        return []
 
 
 class Linux(BaseLinux):