diff --git a/debian/changelog b/debian/changelog
index cf16aa5f..aacfa521 100644
--- a/debian/changelog
+++ b/debian/changelog
@@ -25,6 +25,8 @@ llvm-toolchain-snapshot (1:9~svn358688-1~exp1) experimental; urgency=medium
     CheckerDependencyHandlingAnalyzerPlugin.so,
     CheckerOptionHandlingAnalyzerPlugin.so}
     in libclang-9-dev
+  * Build using thinlto on non stretch, xenial and trusty
+    (fails with some undef symbols)
 
  -- Sylvestre Ledru <sylvestre@debian.org>  Thu, 18 Apr 2019 19:05:45 +0200
 
diff --git a/debian/rules b/debian/rules
index fcebeaa0..e0fb54d7 100755
--- a/debian/rules
+++ b/debian/rules
@@ -26,6 +26,8 @@ ifneq (,$(filter parallel=%,$(subst $(COMMA), ,$(DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS))))
 endif
 
 VENDOR=$(shell lsb_release -is)
+DISTRO=$(shell lsb_release -sc)
+
 DH_VERSION := $(shell dpkg -s debhelper | grep '^Version' | awk '{print $$2}')
 
 DEB_HOST_MULTIARCH  ?= $(shell dpkg-architecture -qDEB_HOST_MULTIARCH)
@@ -220,7 +222,10 @@ ifneq (,$(filter $(DEB_HOST_ARCH_OS),linux))
 endif
 
 # Use thinlto for the link phase
-#CMAKE_EXTRA += -DLLVM_ENABLE_LTO="Thin"
+if test ! "$DISTRO" = "stretch" -a ! "$DISTRO" = "xenial"  -a ! "$DISTRO" = "trusty"; then
+# Don't enable for old distros
+	CMAKE_EXTRA += -DLLVM_ENABLE_LTO="Thin"
+endif
 
 DH_OPTIONS=
 OCAML_ENABLE= no