diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index 0538d94..ff20956 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -274,6 +274,9 @@
 Library
 -------
 
+- Issue #1292: On alpha, arm, ppc, and s390 linux systems the
+  --with-system-ffi configure option defaults to "yes".
+
 - IN module for FreeBSD 8 is added and preexisting FreeBSD 6 and 7
   files are updated.
 
diff --git a/configure b/configure
index bf4d7da..6beb47d 100755
--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 #! /bin/sh
-# From configure.in Revision: 58645 .
+# From configure.in Revision: 58653 .
 # Guess values for system-dependent variables and create Makefiles.
 # Generated by GNU Autoconf 2.61 for python 2.6.
 #
@@ -12955,7 +12955,10 @@
 
 if test -z "$with_system_ffi" && test "$ac_cv_header_ffi_h" = yes; then
 	case "$ac_sys_system/`uname -m`" in
+	Linux/alpha*)  with_system_ffi="yes"; CONFIG_ARGS="$CONFIG_ARGS --with-system-ffi";;
 	Linux/arm*)  with_system_ffi="yes"; CONFIG_ARGS="$CONFIG_ARGS --with-system-ffi";;
+	Linux/ppc*)  with_system_ffi="yes"; CONFIG_ARGS="$CONFIG_ARGS --with-system-ffi";;
+	Linux/s390*)  with_system_ffi="yes"; CONFIG_ARGS="$CONFIG_ARGS --with-system-ffi";;
 	*) with_system_ffi="no"
 	esac
 fi
diff --git a/configure.in b/configure.in
index eabc69f..5806912 100644
--- a/configure.in
+++ b/configure.in
@@ -1755,7 +1755,10 @@
 
 if test -z "$with_system_ffi" && test "$ac_cv_header_ffi_h" = yes; then
 	case "$ac_sys_system/`uname -m`" in
+	Linux/alpha*)  with_system_ffi="yes"; CONFIG_ARGS="$CONFIG_ARGS --with-system-ffi";;
 	Linux/arm*)  with_system_ffi="yes"; CONFIG_ARGS="$CONFIG_ARGS --with-system-ffi";;
+	Linux/ppc*)  with_system_ffi="yes"; CONFIG_ARGS="$CONFIG_ARGS --with-system-ffi";;
+	Linux/s390*)  with_system_ffi="yes"; CONFIG_ARGS="$CONFIG_ARGS --with-system-ffi";;
 	*) with_system_ffi="no"
 	esac
 fi