diff --git a/tests/tcg/configure.sh b/tests/tcg/configure.sh
index 90fd81f506..fa1a4261a4 100755
--- a/tests/tcg/configure.sh
+++ b/tests/tcg/configure.sh
@@ -281,6 +281,12 @@ for target in $target_list; do
                 echo "CROSS_CC_HAS_POWER8_VECTOR=y" >> $config_target_mak
             fi
         ;;
+        i386-linux-user)
+            if do_compiler "$target_compiler" $target_compiler_cflags \
+                -Werror -fno-pie -o $TMPE $TMPC; then
+                echo "CROSS_CC_HAS_I386_NOPIE=y" >> $config_target_mak
+            fi
+        ;;
     esac
 
     enabled_cross_compilers="$enabled_cross_compilers $target_compiler"
diff --git a/tests/tcg/i386/Makefile.target b/tests/tcg/i386/Makefile.target
index c4a6f91966..f7efaab918 100644
--- a/tests/tcg/i386/Makefile.target
+++ b/tests/tcg/i386/Makefile.target
@@ -27,13 +27,23 @@ run-plugin-test-i386-bmi2-%: QEMU_OPTS += -cpu max
 hello-i386: CFLAGS+=-ffreestanding
 hello-i386: LDFLAGS+=-nostdlib
 
-#
-# test-386 includes a couple of additional objects that need to be linked together
-#
+# test-386 includes a couple of additional objects that need to be
+# linked together, we also need a no-pie capable compiler due to the
+# non-pic calls into 16-bit mode
+ifneq ($(DOCKER_IMAGE)$(CROSS_CC_HAS_I386_NOPIE),)
+test-i386: CFLAGS += -fno-pie
 
 test-i386: test-i386.c test-i386-code16.S test-i386-vm86.S test-i386.h test-i386-shift.h test-i386-muldiv.h
 	$(CC) $(CFLAGS) $(LDFLAGS) $(EXTRA_CFLAGS) -o $@ \
 	   $(<D)/test-i386.c $(<D)/test-i386-code16.S $(<D)/test-i386-vm86.S -lm
+else
+test-i386:
+	$(call skip-test, "BUILD of $@", "missing -no-pie compiler support")
+run-test-i386:
+	$(call skip-test, "RUN of test-i386", "not built")
+run-plugin-test-i386-with-%:
+	$(call skip-test, "RUN of test-i386 ($*)", "not built")
+endif
 
 ifeq ($(SPEED), slow)