diff --git a/UPDATING b/UPDATING
index 2a8946c7786a..a84a9ecd63ef 100644
--- a/UPDATING
+++ b/UPDATING
@@ -51,6 +51,10 @@ NOTE TO PEOPLE WHO THINK THAT FreeBSD 12.x IS SLOW:
 
 ****************************** SPECIAL WARNING: ******************************
 
+201711xx:
+	The LOADER_FIREWIRE_SUPPORT build variable as been renamed to
+	WITH_LOADER_FIREWIRE (or WITHOUT_LOADER_FIREWIRE).
+
 20171106:
 	The naive and non-compliant support of posix_fallocate(2) in ZFS
 	has been removed as of r325320.  The system call now returns EINVAL
diff --git a/share/mk/src.opts.mk b/share/mk/src.opts.mk
index 83eb875bcbe2..4ef52cb1689c 100644
--- a/share/mk/src.opts.mk
+++ b/share/mk/src.opts.mk
@@ -180,6 +180,7 @@ __DEFAULT_NO_OPTIONS = \
     GNU_GREP_COMPAT \
     HESIOD \
     LIBSOFT \
+    LOADER_FIREWIRE \
     LOADER_FORCE_LE \
     NAND \
     OFED \
diff --git a/sys/boot/i386/Makefile b/sys/boot/i386/Makefile
index af74d6954dac..9a1663abab07 100644
--- a/sys/boot/i386/Makefile
+++ b/sys/boot/i386/Makefile
@@ -3,7 +3,13 @@
 .include <bsd.init.mk>
 
 SUBDIR=		mbr pmbr boot0 boot0sio btx boot2 cdboot gptboot \
-		libi386 libfirewire loader
+		libi386
+
+.if ${MK_LOADER_FIREWIRE} == "yes"
+SUBDIR+=	libfirewire
+.endif
+
+SUBDIR+=	loader
 
 # special boot programs, 'self-extracting boot2+loader'
 SUBDIR+=	pxeldr
diff --git a/sys/boot/i386/Makefile.inc b/sys/boot/i386/Makefile.inc
index b324d1adfef5..5c36555f940c 100644
--- a/sys/boot/i386/Makefile.inc
+++ b/sys/boot/i386/Makefile.inc
@@ -28,4 +28,9 @@ LD_FLAGS_BIN=-static -N --gc-sections
 DO32=1
 .endif
 
+.if defined(LOADER_FIREWIRE_SUPPORT)
+MK_LOADER_FIREWIRE=yes
+.warning "LOADER_FIREWIRE_SUPPORT deprecated, please move to WITH_LOADER_FIREWIRE"
+.endif
+
 .include "../Makefile.inc"
diff --git a/sys/boot/i386/loader/Makefile b/sys/boot/i386/loader/Makefile
index d97d1bcd549d..e9d8f897a164 100644
--- a/sys/boot/i386/loader/Makefile
+++ b/sys/boot/i386/loader/Makefile
@@ -26,12 +26,6 @@ VERSION_FILE=	${.CURDIR}/../loader/version
 # architecture-specific loader code
 SRCS=		main.c conf.c vers.c chain.c
 
-# Put LOADER_FIREWIRE_SUPPORT=yes in /etc/make.conf for FireWire/dcons support
-.if defined(LOADER_FIREWIRE_SUPPORT)
-CFLAGS+=	-DLOADER_FIREWIRE_SUPPORT
-LIBFIREWIRE=	${BOOTOBJ}/i386/libfirewire/libfirewire.a
-.endif
-
 # Include bcache code.
 HAVE_BCACHE=	yes
 
@@ -39,6 +33,11 @@ HAVE_BCACHE=	yes
 HAVE_PNP=	yes
 HAVE_ISABUS=	yes
 
+.if ${MK_LOADER_FIREWIRE} == "yes"
+CFLAGS+=	-DLOADER_FIREWIRE_SUPPORT
+LIBFIREWIRE=	${BOOTOBJ}/i386/libfirewire/libfirewire.a
+.endif
+
 .if ${LOADER_GELI_SUPPORT:Uyes} == "yes"
 CFLAGS+=	-DLOADER_GELI_SUPPORT
 CFLAGS+=	-I${BOOTSRC}/geli
diff --git a/tools/boot/universe.sh b/tools/boot/universe.sh
index fa11ad2dde7e..2f367c1c2bd0 100755
--- a/tools/boot/universe.sh
+++ b/tools/boot/universe.sh
@@ -19,9 +19,30 @@
 # Output is put into _.boot.$TARGET_ARCH.log in sys.boot.
 #
 
+dobuild()
+{
+    local ta=$1
+    local lf=$2
+    local opt=$3
+
+    echo -n "Building $ta ${opt} ... "
+    if ! make buildenv TARGET_ARCH=$ta BUILDENV_SHELL="make clean cleandepend cleandir obj depend"  \
+	 > $lf 2>&1; then
+	echo "Fail (cleanup)"
+	continue
+    fi
+    if ! make buildenv TARGET_ARCH=$ta BUILDENV_SHELL="make ${opt} -j 20 all"  \
+	 >> $lf 2>&1; then
+	echo "Fail (build)"
+	continue
+    fi
+    echo "Success"
+}
+
 top=$(make -V SRCTOP)
 cd $top/sys/boot
 
+# Default build for a goodly selection of architectures
 for i in \
 	amd64/amd64 \
 	arm/arm arm/armeb arm/armv7 \
@@ -32,34 +53,24 @@ for i in \
 	sparc64/sparc64 \
 	; do
     ta=${i##*/}
-    echo -n "Building $ta..."
-    if ! make buildenv TARGET_ARCH=$ta BUILDENV_SHELL="make clean cleandepend cleandir obj depend"  \
-	 > _.boot.${ta}.log 2>&1; then
-	echo "Fail (cleanup)"
-	continue
-    fi
-    if ! make buildenv TARGET_ARCH=$ta BUILDENV_SHELL="make -j 20 all"  \
-	 >> _.boot.${ta}.log 2>&1; then
-	echo "Fail (build)"
-	continue
-    fi
-    echo "Success"
+    dobuild $ta _.boot.${ta}.log ""
 done
+
+# Build w/o ZFS
+for i in \
+	amd64/amd64 \
+	i386/i386 \
+	sparc64/sparc64 \
+	; do
+    ta=${i##*/}
+    dobuild $ta _.boot.${ta}.noZFS.log "MK_ZFS=no"
+done
+
+# Build with firewire
 for i in \
 	amd64/amd64 \
 	i386/i386 \
 	; do
     ta=${i##*/}
-    echo -n "Building $ta MK_ZFS=no..."
-    if ! make buildenv TARGET_ARCH=$ta BUILDENV_SHELL="make clean cleandepend cleandir obj depend"  \
-	 > _.boot.${ta}.noZFS.log 2>&1; then
-	echo "Fail (cleanup)"
-	continue
-    fi
-    if ! make buildenv TARGET_ARCH=$ta BUILDENV_SHELL="make MK_ZFS=no -j 20 all"  \
-	 >> _.boot.${ta}.noZFS.log 2>&1; then
-	echo "Fail (build)"
-	continue
-    fi
-    echo "Success"
+    dobuild $ta _.boot.${ta}.firewire.log "MK_LOADER_FIREWIRE=yes"
 done
diff --git a/tools/build/options/WITH_LOADER_FIREWIRE b/tools/build/options/WITH_LOADER_FIREWIRE
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..a8f8924934b3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/build/options/WITH_LOADER_FIREWIRE
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+.\" $FreeBSD$
+Enable firewire support in /boot/loader and /boot/zfsloader on x86.
+This option is a nop on all other platforms.