diff --git a/gdb.changes b/gdb.changes
index 4b5f2eb..a6acaa9 100644
--- a/gdb.changes
+++ b/gdb.changes
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+-------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mon Nov 11 08:57:18 UTC 2019 - Ludwig Nussel <lnussel@suse.de>
+
+- make fpc optional (boo#1156284) as fpc requires itself for
+  bootstrapping.
+
 -------------------------------------------------------------------
 Wed Nov  6 21:18:46 UTC 2019 - Tom de Vries <tdevries@suse.com>
 
diff --git a/gdb.spec b/gdb.spec
index fdf1a3e..9cac337 100644
--- a/gdb.spec
+++ b/gdb.spec
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@
 %global _without_testsuite 1
 %endif
 %bcond_without testsuite
+%bcond_without fpc
 
 Summary:        A GNU source-level debugger for C, C++, Fortran and other languages
 License:        GPL-3.0-or-later AND GPL-3.0-with-GCC-exception AND LGPL-2.1-or-later AND LGPL-3.0-or-later
@@ -378,9 +379,11 @@ BuildRequires:  gcc-go
 %endif
 %if 0%{?suse_version} >= 1500 && 0%{?is_opensuse}
 %ifarch %{ix86} x86_64 aarch64 armv7l
+%if %{with fpc}
 BuildRequires:  fpc
 %endif
 %endif
+%endif
 %if 0%{?suse_version} >= 1200
 %ifnarch s390
 # s390 (for SLE12) doesn't have valgrind