diff --git a/package/pthreadpool/Config.in b/package/pthreadpool/Config.in
index 194ae33f85..8d163b16de 100644
--- a/package/pthreadpool/Config.in
+++ b/package/pthreadpool/Config.in
@@ -1,8 +1,12 @@
 config BR2_PACKAGE_PTHREADPOOL
 	bool "pthreadpool"
+	depends on BR2_TOOLCHAIN_HAS_THREADS
 	select BR2_PACKAGE_FXDIV
 	help
 	  Pthreadpool is a portable and efficient thread pool
 	  implementation.
 
 	  https://github.com/Maratyszcza/pthreadpool
+
+comment "pthreadpool needs a toolchain w/ threads"
+	  depends on !BR2_TOOLCHAIN_HAS_THREADS
diff --git a/package/xnnpack/Config.in b/package/xnnpack/Config.in
index e4b92f61e8..794c5c47d2 100644
--- a/package/xnnpack/Config.in
+++ b/package/xnnpack/Config.in
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ config BR2_PACKAGE_XNNPACK
 	depends on BR2_PACKAGE_XNNPACK_ARCH_SUPPORTS
 	depends on BR2_INSTALL_LIBSTDCPP
 	depends on BR2_TOOLCHAIN_GCC_AT_LEAST_4_9 # C++14
-	depends on BR2_TOOLCHAIN_HAS_THREADS # cpuinfo
+	depends on BR2_TOOLCHAIN_HAS_THREADS # cpuinfo, pthreadpool
 	select BR2_PACKAGE_CPUINFO
 	select BR2_PACKAGE_FP16
 	select BR2_PACKAGE_FXDIV