diff --git a/pkgs/os-specific/linux/minimal-bootstrap/binutils/default.nix b/pkgs/os-specific/linux/minimal-bootstrap/binutils/default.nix
index a84d35f09b56..03f3afa4ad72 100644
--- a/pkgs/os-specific/linux/minimal-bootstrap/binutils/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/os-specific/linux/minimal-bootstrap/binutils/default.nix
@@ -20,11 +20,16 @@ let
   # Based on https://github.com/ZilchOS/bootstrap-from-tcc/blob/2e0c68c36b3437386f786d619bc9a16177f2e149/using-nix/2a1-static-binutils.nix
   inherit (import ./common.nix { inherit lib; }) meta;
   pname = "binutils";
-  version = "2.41";
+
+  # Unfortunately, this is the latest version (as of 2.45.1) that works for
+  # - tinycc that compiles gcc 4.6.4 (ar in 2.45.* produce incompatible archives for tcc linker)
+  # - gcc 4.6.4 that compiles musl 1.2.5 (ld crashes in 2.43 and 2.44)
+  # This might need some further investigation.
+  version = "2.42";
 
   src = fetchurl {
     url = "mirror://gnu/binutils/binutils-${version}.tar.xz";
-    hash = "sha256-rppXieI0WeWWBuZxRyPy0//DHAMXQZHvDQFb3wYAdFA=";
+    hash = "sha256-9uTUH9X8d4sGt4kUV7NiDaXs6hAGxqSkGumYEJ+FqAA=";
   };
 
   patches = [
@@ -98,6 +103,12 @@ bash.runCommand "${pname}-${version}"
     export CC="tcc -B ${tinycc.libs}/lib"
     export AR="tcc -ar"
     export lt_cv_sys_max_cmd_len=32768
+
+    # binutils 2.42 has a broken check for TLS storage class, which results
+    # in the TLS macro begin undefined.
+    # Let's help it along. We won't need TLS anyway.
+    export ac_cv_tls=" "
+
     export CFLAGS="-D__LITTLE_ENDIAN__=1"
     bash ./configure ${lib.concatStringsSep " " configureFlags}