diff --git a/gio/tests/meson.build b/gio/tests/meson.build
index fd4c46fc6..232ecca5e 100644
--- a/gio/tests/meson.build
+++ b/gio/tests/meson.build
@@ -934,9 +934,19 @@ if not meson.is_cross_build()
 
   ld = find_program('ld', required : false)
 
-  if build_machine.system() == 'linux' and \
-      objcopy.found() and objcopy_supports_add_symbol and ld.found() and \
-      build_machine.cpu_family() not in ['mips', 'mips64']
+  if build_machine.system() != 'linux'
+    why_no_external_data = 'only works on Linux'
+  elif not objcopy.found()
+    why_no_external_data = 'objcopy not found'
+  elif not objcopy_supports_add_symbol
+    why_no_external_data = 'objcopy does not support --add-symbol'
+  elif not ld.found()
+    why_no_external_data = 'ld not found'
+  elif build_machine.cpu_family() in ['mips', 'mips64']
+    why_no_external_data = 'cc -r can produce a mismatched MIPS ABI family, see GNOME/glib!3640'
+  else
+    why_no_external_data = ''
+
     test_gresource_binary = custom_target('test5.gresource',
       input : 'test5.gresource.xml',
       output : 'test5.gresource',
@@ -994,8 +1004,15 @@ if not meson.is_cross_build()
     ]
   endif
 
+  resources_c_args = []
+
+  if why_no_external_data != ''
+    resources_c_args += '-DNO_EXTERNAL_DATA="@0@"'.format(why_no_external_data)
+  endif
+
   gio_tests += {
     'resources' : {
+      'c_args' : resources_c_args,
       'extra_sources' : resources_extra_sources,
       'depends' : resource_plugin,
       # FIXME: musl: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/glib/-/issues/3160
diff --git a/gio/tests/resources.c b/gio/tests/resources.c
index f567914d7..f7dc03911 100644
--- a/gio/tests/resources.c
+++ b/gio/tests/resources.c
@@ -642,10 +642,10 @@ test_resource_manual2 (void)
 static void
 test_resource_binary_linked (void)
 {
-  #ifndef __linux__
-  g_test_skip ("--external-data test only works on Linux");
+  #ifdef NO_EXTERNAL_DATA
+  g_test_skip ("--external-data cannot be tested: " NO_EXTERNAL_DATA);
   return;
-  #else /* if __linux__ */
+  #else /* !NO_EXTERNAL_DATA */
   GError *error = NULL;
   gboolean found;
   gsize size;
@@ -669,7 +669,7 @@ test_resource_binary_linked (void)
   g_assert_cmpint (size, ==, 6);
   g_assert_cmpstr (g_bytes_get_data (data, NULL), ==, "test1\n");
   g_bytes_unref (data);
-  #endif /* if __linux__ */
+  #endif /* !NO_EXTERNAL_DATA */
 }
 
 /* Test resource whose xml file starts with more than one digit