diff --git a/README.adoc b/README.adoc
index 7893e5e..2d5920e 100644
--- a/README.adoc
+++ b/README.adoc
@@ -611,6 +611,12 @@ If you have already built previously, don't be afraid: gem5 and QEMU use almost
 
 Remember that the gem5 boot is <<benchmark-linux-kernel-boot,considerably slower>> than QEMU since the simulation is more detailed.
 
+gem5 moves a bit slowly, and if your host compiler is very new, the build might be broken for it, e.g. this was the case for Ubuntu 19.10 with GCC 9 and gem5 62d75e7105fe172eb906d4f80f360ff8591d4178 from Dec 2019. You can work around that by https://askubuntu.com/questions/466651/how-do-i-use-the-latest-gcc-on-ubuntu/1163021#1163021[installing an older compiler] and using it with something like:
+
+....
+./build-gem5 -- CC=gcc-8 CXX=g++-8
+....
+
 To get a terminal, either open a new shell and run:
 
 ....