diff --git a/dist/changes-5.4.2 b/dist/changes-5.4.2
index e1ad9b6846..5827187e9e 100644
--- a/dist/changes-5.4.2
+++ b/dist/changes-5.4.2
@@ -34,6 +34,13 @@ information about a particular change.
   common EXIF-format (big-endian) was not working until 5.4.1. 5.4.2 restores the
   behavior of 5.4.0 and earlier for most EXIF-tagged JPEGs.
   EXIF orientation will be an opt-in starting with Qt 5.5.
+- On x86 and x86-64 systems with ELF binaries (especially Linux), due to
+  a new optimization in GCC 5.x in combination with a recent version of
+  GNU binutils, compiling Qt applications with -fPIE is no longer
+  enough. Applications now need to be compiled with the -fPIC option if
+  Qt's option "reduce relocations" is active. Note that Clang is known
+  to generate incompatible code even with -fPIC if the -flto option is
+  active.
 
 ****************************************************************************
 *                               Library                                    *
diff --git a/src/corelib/global/qglobal.h b/src/corelib/global/qglobal.h
index ef84662036..4547877da6 100644
--- a/src/corelib/global/qglobal.h
+++ b/src/corelib/global/qglobal.h
@@ -1047,9 +1047,9 @@ Q_CORE_EXPORT int qrand();
 #  define QT_NO_SHAREDMEMORY
 #endif
 
-#if !defined(QT_BOOTSTRAPPED) && defined(QT_REDUCE_RELOCATIONS) && defined(__ELF__) && !defined(__PIC__)
+#if !defined(QT_BOOTSTRAPPED) && defined(QT_REDUCE_RELOCATIONS) && defined(__ELF__) && (!defined(__PIC__) || defined(__PIE__))
 #  error "You must build your code with position independent code if Qt was built with -reduce-relocations. "\
-         "Compile your code with -fPIC."
+         "Compile your code with -fPIC (-fPIE is not enough)."
 #endif
 
 namespace QtPrivate {