diff --git a/gnu/local.mk b/gnu/local.mk
index 0fe2c90781..7c3e2648e9 100644
--- a/gnu/local.mk
+++ b/gnu/local.mk
@@ -797,6 +797,7 @@ dist_patch_DATA =						\
   %D%/packages/patches/combinatorial-blas-awpm.patch		\
   %D%/packages/patches/combinatorial-blas-io-fix.patch		\
   %D%/packages/patches/containerd-test-with-go1.13.patch		\
+  %D%/packages/patches/coreutils-ls.patch			\
   %D%/packages/patches/cpufrequtils-fix-aclocal.patch		\
   %D%/packages/patches/crawl-upgrade-saves.patch		\
   %D%/packages/patches/crda-optional-gcrypt.patch		\
diff --git a/gnu/packages/base.scm b/gnu/packages/base.scm
index 1989bdd7eb..f048e4b119 100644
--- a/gnu/packages/base.scm
+++ b/gnu/packages/base.scm
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@
 ;;; Copyright © 2016 Jan Nieuwenhuizen <janneke@gnu.org>
 ;;; Copyright © 2016, 2018 Alex Vong <alexvong1995@gmail.com>
 ;;; Copyright © 2017 Rene Saavedra <rennes@openmailbox.org>
-;;; Copyright © 2017 Mathieu Othacehe <m.othacehe@gmail.com>
+;;; Copyright © 2017, 2020 Mathieu Othacehe <m.othacehe@gmail.com>
 ;;; Copyright © 2017, 2018, 2020 Marius Bakke <mbakke@fastmail.com>
 ;;; Copyright © 2017 Eric Bavier <bavier@member.fsf.org>
 ;;; Copyright © 2018 Tobias Geerinckx-Rice <me@tobias.gr>
@@ -297,7 +297,8 @@ (define-public coreutils
                                 version ".tar.xz"))
             (sha256
              (base32
-              "1yjcrh5hw70c0yn8zw55pd6j51dj90anpq8mmg649ps9g3gdhn24"))))
+              "1yjcrh5hw70c0yn8zw55pd6j51dj90anpq8mmg649ps9g3gdhn24"))
+            (patches (search-patches "coreutils-ls.patch"))))
    (build-system gnu-build-system)
    (inputs `(("acl"  ,acl)                        ; TODO: add SELinux
              ("gmp"  ,gmp)                        ;bignums in 'expr', yay!
diff --git a/gnu/packages/patches/coreutils-ls.patch b/gnu/packages/patches/coreutils-ls.patch
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..59cbbf00b5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/gnu/packages/patches/coreutils-ls.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,117 @@
+Patch taken from upstream to fix cross-compilation for aarch64.  This can be
+removed on the next coreutils release.
+
+From 10fcb97bd728f09d4a027eddf8ad2900f0819b0a Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
+From: Paul Eggert <eggert@cs.ucla.edu>
+Date: Thu, 5 Mar 2020 17:25:29 -0800
+Subject: [PATCH] ls: restore 8.31 behavior on removed directories
+
+* NEWS: Mention this.
+* src/ls.c: Do not include <sys/sycall.h>
+(print_dir): Don't worry about whether the directory is removed.
+* tests/ls/removed-directory.sh: Adjust to match new (i.e., old)
+behavior.
+---
+ NEWS                          |  6 ++++++
+ src/ls.c                      | 22 ----------------------
+ tests/ls/removed-directory.sh | 10 ++--------
+ 3 files changed, 8 insertions(+), 30 deletions(-)
+
+diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
+index fdc8bf5db..653e7178b 100644
+--- a/NEWS
++++ b/NEWS
+@@ -2,6 +2,12 @@ GNU coreutils NEWS                                    -*- outline -*-
+ 
+ * Noteworthy changes in release ?.? (????-??-??) [?]
+ 
++** Changes in behavior
++
++  On GNU/Linux systems, ls no longer issues an error message on
++  directory merely because it was removed.  This reverts a change
++  that was made in release 8.32.
++
+ 
+ * Noteworthy changes in release 8.32 (2020-03-05) [stable]
+ 
+diff --git a/src/ls.c b/src/ls.c
+index 24b983287..4acf5f44d 100644
+--- a/src/ls.c
++++ b/src/ls.c
+@@ -49,10 +49,6 @@
+ # include <sys/ptem.h>
+ #endif
+ 
+-#ifdef __linux__
+-# include <sys/syscall.h>
+-#endif
+-
+ #include <stdio.h>
+ #include <assert.h>
+ #include <setjmp.h>
+@@ -2896,7 +2892,6 @@ print_dir (char const *name, char const *realname, bool command_line_arg)
+   struct dirent *next;
+   uintmax_t total_blocks = 0;
+   static bool first = true;
+-  bool found_any_entries = false;
+ 
+   errno = 0;
+   dirp = opendir (name);
+@@ -2972,7 +2967,6 @@ print_dir (char const *name, char const *realname, bool command_line_arg)
+       next = readdir (dirp);
+       if (next)
+         {
+-          found_any_entries = true;
+           if (! file_ignored (next->d_name))
+             {
+               enum filetype type = unknown;
+@@ -3018,22 +3012,6 @@ print_dir (char const *name, char const *realname, bool command_line_arg)
+           if (errno != EOVERFLOW)
+             break;
+         }
+-#ifdef __linux__
+-      else if (! found_any_entries)
+-        {
+-          /* If readdir finds no directory entries at all, not even "." or
+-             "..", then double check that the directory exists.  */
+-          if (syscall (SYS_getdents, dirfd (dirp), NULL, 0) == -1
+-              && errno != EINVAL)
+-            {
+-              /* We exclude EINVAL as that pertains to buffer handling,
+-                 and we've passed NULL as the buffer for simplicity.
+-                 ENOENT is returned if appropriate before buffer handling.  */
+-              file_failure (command_line_arg, _("reading directory %s"), name);
+-            }
+-          break;
+-        }
+-#endif
+       else
+         break;
+ 
+diff --git a/tests/ls/removed-directory.sh b/tests/ls/removed-directory.sh
+index e8c835dab..fe8f929a1 100755
+--- a/tests/ls/removed-directory.sh
++++ b/tests/ls/removed-directory.sh
+@@ -26,20 +26,14 @@ case $host_triplet in
+   *) skip_ 'non linux kernel' ;;
+ esac
+ 
+-LS_FAILURE=2
+-
+-cat <<\EOF >exp-err || framework_failure_
+-ls: reading directory '.': No such file or directory
+-EOF
+-
+ cwd=$(pwd)
+ mkdir d || framework_failure_
+ cd d || framework_failure_
+ rmdir ../d || framework_failure_
+ 
+-returns_ $LS_FAILURE ls >../out 2>../err || fail=1
++ls >../out 2>../err || fail=1
+ cd "$cwd" || framework_failure_
+ compare /dev/null out || fail=1
+-compare exp-err err || fail=1
++compare /dev/null err || fail=1
+ 
+ Exit $fail