diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 3e2ab7a..31de3d3 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -82,6 +82,18 @@ else
   AC_CHECK_CXXFLAG([CXXFLAGS], [DNDEBUG])
 fi
 
+dnl see if we have to enable visibility support
+AC_ARG_ENABLE([visibility-support],
+    AS_HELP_STRING([--enable-visibility-support],
+              [enable the new GCC visibility support; requires GCC >= 4.0 to work.]),
+              [enable_gcc_visibility="$enableval"],
+              [enable_gcc_visibility="no"])
+AC_MSG_CHECKING([whether to use new GCC visibility attributes])
+if test "x$enable_gcc_visibility" = "xno"; then
+  CPPFLAGS="${CPPFLAGS} -DDISABLE_VISIBILITY_SUPPORT"
+fi
+AC_MSG_RESULT([$enable_gcc_visibility])
+
 
 AC_PROG_INSTALL
 
diff --git a/distro/ebuild/sgpemv2-1.0.ebuild b/distro/ebuild/sgpemv2-1.0.ebuild
index 8a5fbc1..92ce75b 100644
--- a/distro/ebuild/sgpemv2-1.0.ebuild
+++ b/distro/ebuild/sgpemv2-1.0.ebuild
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ src_compile() {
 		conf_opts="--disable-tests"
 	fi
 
-	conf_opts="${conf_opts} --disable-static"
+	conf_opts="${conf_opts} --enable-visibility-support"
 
 	mkdir build && cd build
 
diff --git a/src/backend/sgpemv2/sgpemv2-visibility.hh b/src/backend/sgpemv2/sgpemv2-visibility.hh
index d8e4793..fb18785 100644
--- a/src/backend/sgpemv2/sgpemv2-visibility.hh
+++ b/src/backend/sgpemv2/sgpemv2-visibility.hh
@@ -1,7 +1,12 @@
 
+#ifndef VISIBILITY_SUPPORT_HH
+#define VISIBILITY_SUPPORT_HH 1
+
+// -----------------------------------------------------------
+
 // Visibility macros for GNU GCC
 
-#if defined __GNUC__ && (__GNUC__) >= 4
+#if defined __GNUC__ && (__GNUC__) >= 4 && (not defined DISABLE_VISIBILITY_SUPPORT)
 
   /* Attribute for objects to be exported from DSOs */
   #define SG_DLLEXPORT __attribute__ ((visibility("default")))
@@ -30,3 +35,7 @@
   #define SG_DLLPUBLIC /* Unsupported */
 
 #endif
+
+// ------------------------------------------------------------
+
+#endif