diff --git a/include/image.mk b/include/image.mk
index 08f240fe238..84549c55438 100644
--- a/include/image.mk
+++ b/include/image.mk
@@ -62,7 +62,7 @@ ifneq ($(CONFIG_TARGET_ROOTFS_INITRAMFS),y)
     
   ifeq ($(CONFIG_TARGET_ROOTFS_TGZ),y)
     define Image/mkfs/tgz
-		tar -zcf $(BIN_DIR)/openwrt-$(BOARD)-$(KERNEL)-rootfs.tgz --owner=root --group=root -C $(BUILD_DIR)/root/ .
+		$(TAR) -zcf $(BIN_DIR)/openwrt-$(BOARD)-$(KERNEL)-rootfs.tgz --owner=root --group=root -C $(BUILD_DIR)/root/ .
     endef
   endif
 else
diff --git a/target/sdk/files/Makefile b/target/sdk/files/Makefile
index 31758c12484..ebd30bf32a1 100644
--- a/target/sdk/files/Makefile
+++ b/target/sdk/files/Makefile
@@ -76,7 +76,7 @@ world: FORCE
 		cd package; \
 		find . -maxdepth 2 -name Config.in | \
 			sed -e 's,/Config.in,,g' | \
-			xargs -n1 make compile -C; \
+			xargs -n1 $(MAKE) compile -C; \
 	)
 
 clean: FORCE
diff --git a/tools/ipkg-utils/patches/120-build_tar.patch b/tools/ipkg-utils/patches/120-build_tar.patch
index 441d3adf044..299d68f4e47 100644
--- a/tools/ipkg-utils/patches/120-build_tar.patch
+++ b/tools/ipkg-utils/patches/120-build_tar.patch
@@ -3,14 +3,36 @@ This patch from aorlinsk fixes an issue with order in options passed to tar
   http://openwrt.org/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=8332#p8332
 
 
---- ipkg-utils-1.7/ipkg-build.orig	2005-06-14 23:48:36.000000000 +0200
-+++ ipkg-utils-1.7/ipkg-build	2005-06-14 23:50:03.000000000 +0200
-@@ -243,7 +243,7 @@
+Index: ipkg-utils-1.7/ipkg-build
+===================================================================
+--- ipkg-utils-1.7.orig/ipkg-build	2007-06-30 14:19:16.519409000 +0200
++++ ipkg-utils-1.7/ipkg-build	2007-06-30 14:20:12.722921500 +0200
+@@ -184,7 +184,7 @@
+ 	g ) group=$OPTARG
+ 	    ogargs="$ogargs --group=$group"
+ 	    ;;
+-        c ) outer=tar
++        c ) outer=$TAR
+             ;;
+         C ) noclean=1
+             ;;
+@@ -243,8 +243,8 @@
  mkdir $tmp_dir
  
  echo $CONTROL > $tmp_dir/tarX
 -( cd $pkg_dir && tar $ogargs -czf $tmp_dir/data.tar.gz . -X $tmp_dir/tarX )
-+( cd $pkg_dir && tar $ogargs -X $tmp_dir/tarX -czf $tmp_dir/data.tar.gz . )
- ( cd $pkg_dir/$CONTROL && tar $ogargs -czf $tmp_dir/control.tar.gz . )
+-( cd $pkg_dir/$CONTROL && tar $ogargs -czf $tmp_dir/control.tar.gz . )
++( cd $pkg_dir && $TAR $ogargs -X $tmp_dir/tarX -czf $tmp_dir/data.tar.gz . )
++( cd $pkg_dir/$CONTROL && $TAR $ogargs -czf $tmp_dir/control.tar.gz . )
  rm $tmp_dir/tarX
  
+ echo "2.0" > $tmp_dir/debian-binary
+@@ -254,7 +254,7 @@
+ if [ "$outer" = "ar" ] ; then
+   ( cd $tmp_dir && ar -crf $pkg_file ./debian-binary ./data.tar.gz ./control.tar.gz )
+ else
+-  ( cd $tmp_dir && tar -zcf $pkg_file ./debian-binary ./data.tar.gz ./control.tar.gz )
++  ( cd $tmp_dir && $TAR -zcf $pkg_file ./debian-binary ./data.tar.gz ./control.tar.gz )
+ fi
+ 
+ rm $tmp_dir/debian-binary $tmp_dir/data.tar.gz $tmp_dir/control.tar.gz