diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 2200725e..3a743782 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -1,3 +1,20 @@
+D-Bus 1.5.4 (UNRELEASED)
+==
+
+Changes:
+
+• Don't use -Wl,--gc-sections by default: in practice the size decrease is
+  small (300KiB on x86-64) and it frequently doesn't work in unusual
+  toolchains. To optimize for minimum installed size, you should benchmark
+  various possibilities for CFLAGS and LDFLAGS, and set the best flags for
+  your particular toolchain at configure time. (fd.o #33466, Simon McVittie)
+
+• Use #!/bin/sh for run-with-tmp-session-bus.sh, making it work on *BSD
+  (fd.o #35880, Timothy Redaelli)
+
+• Windows-specific changes:
+  · don't try to build dbus-daemon-launch-helper (fd.o #37838, Mark Brand)
+
 D-Bus 1.5.2 (2011-06-01)
 ==
 
diff --git a/bus/Makefile.am b/bus/Makefile.am
index dfb3bc34..bb895e2a 100644
--- a/bus/Makefile.am
+++ b/bus/Makefile.am
@@ -89,7 +89,7 @@ dbus_daemon_LDADD=					\
 	$(EFENCE)					\
 	$(DBUS_BUS_LIBS)
 
-dbus_daemon_LDFLAGS=@R_DYNAMIC_LDFLAG@ @SECTION_LDFLAGS@
+dbus_daemon_LDFLAGS=@R_DYNAMIC_LDFLAG@
 
 LAUNCH_HELPER_SOURCES=				\
 	$(XML_SOURCES)				\
@@ -115,7 +115,7 @@ dbus_daemon_launch_helper_LDADD=		\
 	$(top_builddir)/dbus/libdbus-internal.la \
 	$(DBUS_LAUNCHER_LIBS)
 
-dbus_daemon_launch_helper_LDFLAGS=@R_DYNAMIC_LDFLAG@ @SECTION_LDFLAGS@
+dbus_daemon_launch_helper_LDFLAGS=@R_DYNAMIC_LDFLAG@
 
 ## we build another binary so we can do the launch testing without root privs.
 ## DO NOT INSTALL THIS FILE
@@ -127,7 +127,7 @@ dbus_daemon_launch_helper_test_LDADD=		\
 	$(top_builddir)/dbus/libdbus-internal.la \
 	$(DBUS_LAUNCHER_LIBS)
 
-dbus_daemon_launch_helper_test_LDFLAGS=@R_DYNAMIC_LDFLAG@ @SECTION_LDFLAGS@
+dbus_daemon_launch_helper_test_LDFLAGS=@R_DYNAMIC_LDFLAG@
 dbus_daemon_launch_helper_test_CPPFLAGS= -DDBUS_STATIC_BUILD	\
 	-DACTIVATION_LAUNCHER_TEST
 
@@ -141,7 +141,7 @@ bus_test_launch_helper_LDADD=		\
 	$(top_builddir)/dbus/libdbus-internal.la \
 	$(DBUS_LAUNCHER_LIBS)
 
-bus_test_launch_helper_LDFLAGS=@R_DYNAMIC_LDFLAG@ @SECTION_LDFLAGS@
+bus_test_launch_helper_LDFLAGS=@R_DYNAMIC_LDFLAG@
 bus_test_launch_helper_CPPFLAGS= -DDBUS_STATIC_BUILD	\
 	-DACTIVATION_LAUNCHER_TEST	\
 	-DACTIVATION_LAUNCHER_DO_OOM
@@ -150,7 +150,9 @@ bus_test_launch_helper_CPPFLAGS= -DDBUS_STATIC_BUILD	\
 ## even when not doing "make check"
 noinst_PROGRAMS = $(TESTS)
 dbus_daemon_exec_PROGRAMS = dbus-daemon
+if DBUS_UNIX
 libexec_PROGRAMS = dbus-daemon-launch-helper
+endif DBUS_UNIX
 
 ## note that TESTS has special meaning (stuff to use in make check)
 ## so if adding tests not to be run in make check, don't add them to
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 314acb72..06998b99 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -1193,34 +1193,6 @@ dnl but prepending to CFLAGS (so the user can override it with later CFLAGS)
 dnl is the next best thing
 CFLAGS="$WARNING_CFLAGS $CFLAGS"
 
-# Disabling gc-sections makes our binaries bigger, but some toolchains
-# have known-broken support for it which discards sections that are needed.
-# See https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=33466
-SECTION_LDFLAGS=
-AC_ARG_ENABLE([gc-sections],
-  [AS_HELP_STRING([--disable-gc-sections],
-    [disable --gc-sections to work around broken toolchains])],
-  [enable_gc_sections=$enableval],
-  [enable_gc_sections=yes])
-if test "x$GCC,$enable_gc_sections,$dbus_win" = xyes,yes,no; then
-  save_CFLAGS="$CFLAGS"
-  save_LDFLAGS="$LDFLAGS"
-  AC_MSG_CHECKING([for ability to link with --gc-sections])
-  CFLAGS="-ffunction-sections -fdata-sections"
-  LDFLAGS="-Wl,--gc-sections"
-  AC_LINK_IFELSE([AC_LANG_PROGRAM([], [])],
-    [rc=yes],
-    [rc=no])
-  AC_MSG_RESULT([$rc])
-  CFLAGS="$save_CFLAGS"
-  LDFLAGS="$save_LDFLAGS"
-  if test "x$rc" = xyes; then
-    SECTION_LDFLAGS="-Wl,--gc-sections"
-    CFLAGS="-ffunction-sections -fdata-sections $CFLAGS"
-  fi
-fi
-AC_SUBST([SECTION_LDFLAGS])
-
 case $host_os in
     solaris*)
         # Solaris' C library apparently needs these runes to be threadsafe...
diff --git a/tools/run-with-tmp-session-bus.sh b/tools/run-with-tmp-session-bus.sh
index 982184a2..c39999fb 100755
--- a/tools/run-with-tmp-session-bus.sh
+++ b/tools/run-with-tmp-session-bus.sh
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-#! /bin/bash
+#! /bin/sh
 
 SCRIPTNAME=$0
 WRAPPED_SCRIPT=$1