diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index cf6c7a365f..9dadbe460f 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,10 @@
+2006-12-12  Tim-Philipp Müller  <tim at centricular dot net>
+
+	* configure.ac:
+	* gst/gst.c: (init_pre):
+	  Add some basic system details such as OS and architecture
+	  to the debug output if possible, courtesy of uname().
+
 2006-12-11  Tim-Philipp Müller  <tim at centricular dot net>
 
 	* docs/gst/running.xml:
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index b3b9c2a7ce..67f37b0e61 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -272,6 +272,9 @@ AC_CHECK_HEADERS([sys/socket.h], HAVE_SYS_SOCKET_H=yes)
 AM_CONDITIONAL(HAVE_SYS_SOCKET_H, test "x$HAVE_SYS_SOCKET_H" = "xyes")
 AC_CHECK_HEADERS([process.h])
 
+dnl Check for sys/utsname.h for uname
+AC_CHECK_HEADERS([sys/utsname.h])
+
 dnl *** checks for types/defines ***
 
 dnl *** checks for structures ***
diff --git a/gst/gst.c b/gst/gst.c
index 6ebfd2e3a8..c1c0db5b15 100644
--- a/gst/gst.c
+++ b/gst/gst.c
@@ -107,6 +107,9 @@
 #ifdef HAVE_FORK
 #include <sys/wait.h>
 #endif /* HAVE_FORK */
+#ifdef HAVE_SYS_UTSNAME_H
+#include <sys/utsname.h>
+#endif
 #ifdef HAVE_UNISTD_H
 #include <unistd.h>
 #endif
@@ -542,6 +545,19 @@ init_pre (GOptionContext * context, GOptionGroup * group, gpointer data,
   GST_INFO ("Initializing GStreamer Core Library version %s", VERSION);
   GST_INFO ("Using library installed in %s", LIBDIR);
 
+  /* Print some basic system details if possible (OS/architecture) */
+#ifdef HAVE_SYS_UTSNAME_H
+  {
+    struct utsname sys_details;
+
+    if (uname (&sys_details) == 0) {
+      GST_INFO ("%s %s %s %s %s", sys_details.sysname,
+          sys_details.nodename, sys_details.release, sys_details.version,
+          sys_details.machine);
+    }
+  }
+#endif
+
   return TRUE;
 }