diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index 78f4fa6c8d0..331ac4e16b1 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -40,6 +40,9 @@ Core and Builtins
 Library
 -------
 
+- Issue #12326: sys.platform is now always 'linux2' on Linux, even if Python
+  is compiled on Linux 3.
+
 - Issue #9173: Let shutil._make_archive work if the logger argument is None.
 
 - Issue #12650: Fix a race condition where a subprocess.Popen could leak
diff --git a/configure b/configure
index 3af5eeb3541..99a7c718baf 100755
--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -2995,6 +2995,7 @@ then
 	MACHDEP="$ac_md_system$ac_md_release"
 
 	case $MACHDEP in
+	linux*) MACHDEP="linux2";;
 	cygwin*) MACHDEP="cygwin";;
 	darwin*) MACHDEP="darwin";;
 	atheos*) MACHDEP="atheos";;
diff --git a/configure.in b/configure.in
index 139b21b4f10..acd35d843dd 100644
--- a/configure.in
+++ b/configure.in
@@ -293,6 +293,7 @@ then
 	MACHDEP="$ac_md_system$ac_md_release"
 
 	case $MACHDEP in
+	linux*) MACHDEP="linux2";;
 	cygwin*) MACHDEP="cygwin";;
 	darwin*) MACHDEP="darwin";;
 	atheos*) MACHDEP="atheos";;