diff --git a/build.sh b/build.sh
index 84bf6d7..af2c02e 100755
--- a/build.sh
+++ b/build.sh
@@ -163,7 +163,8 @@ echo ""
 CONFFLAGS="--prefix=$TARGET_DIR --target=x86_64-apple-$TARGET "
 [ -z "$USE_CLANG_AS" ] && CONFFLAGS+="--disable-clang-as "
 [ -n "$DISABLE_LTO_SUPPORT" ] && CONFFLAGS+="--disable-lto-support "
-./configure $CONFFLAGS
+# https://github.com/tpoechtrager/osxcross/issues/156
+CXX="$CXX -DNDEBUG" ./configure $CONFFLAGS
 $MAKE -j$JOBS
 $MAKE install -j$JOBS
 popd &>/dev/null
diff --git a/build_gcc.sh b/build_gcc.sh
index 1f02286..9c8fb5f 100755
--- a/build_gcc.sh
+++ b/build_gcc.sh
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ eval $(tools/osxcross_conf.sh)
 # GCC version to build
 # (<4.7 will not work properly with libc++)
 if [ -z "$GCC_VERSION" ]; then
-  GCC_VERSION=6.2.0
+  GCC_VERSION=8.2.0
   #GCC_VERSION=5-20140928 # snapshot
 fi