diff --git a/package/softether/softether.mk b/package/softether/softether.mk
index 7f2dfb8997..3b1ce40cf3 100644
--- a/package/softether/softether.mk
+++ b/package/softether/softether.mk
@@ -16,13 +16,19 @@ SOFTETHER_AUTORECONF = YES
 
 ifeq ($(BR2_ENABLE_LOCALE),)
 SOFTETHER_DEPENDENCIES += libiconv
-SOFTETHER_CONF_ENV = LIBS="-liconv"
+SOFTETHER_CONF_ENV = LIBS+=" -liconv"
 endif
 
 SOFTETHER_CONF_OPTS = \
 	--with-openssl="$(STAGING_DIR)/usr" \
 	--with-zlib="$(STAGING_DIR)/usr"
 
+# softether uses clock_gettime but forgets to link against -lrt
+# breaking the build against older libc's that don't provide this
+# symbol in libc
+SOFTETHER_CONF_ENV += LIBS+=" -lrt"
+HOST_SOFTETHER_CONF_ENV += LIBS+=" -lrt"
+
 # host-libiconv does not exist, therefore we need this extra line
 HOST_SOFTETHER_DEPENDENCIES = host-pkgconf host-openssl host-readline