diff --git a/build-aux/hydra/gnu-system.scm b/build-aux/hydra/gnu-system.scm
index 04845a3e1f..19371be3e9 100644
--- a/build-aux/hydra/gnu-system.scm
+++ b/build-aux/hydra/gnu-system.scm
@@ -317,8 +317,15 @@ valid."
 
     (define (pointless? target)
       ;; Return #t if it makes no sense to cross-build to TARGET from SYSTEM.
-      (and (string-contains target "mingw")
-           (not (string=? "x86_64-linux" system))))
+      (match system
+        ((or "x86_64-linux" "i686-linux")
+         (if (string-contains target "mingw")
+             (not (string=? "x86_64-linux" system))
+             #f))
+        (_
+         ;; Don't try to cross-compile from non-Intel platforms: this isn't
+         ;; very useful and these are often brittle configurations.
+         #t)))
 
     (define (either proc1 proc2 proc3)
       (lambda (x)