diff --git a/conf/local.conf b/conf/local.conf
index 5a20371..9fe3851 100644
--- a/conf/local.conf
+++ b/conf/local.conf
@@ -10,3 +10,10 @@ MACHINE = "qemux86"
 # OE-Core basic distro configuration
 DISTRO = ""
 
+# We're not doing any building, no need to error on missing host tools,
+# but move them to HOSTTOOLS_NONFATAL just in case any do get called
+# from anonymous python or python expressions
+HOSTTOOLS_NONFATAL := "${@d.getVar('HOSTTOOLS', True) or ''} ${@d.getVar('HOSTTOOLS_NONFATAL', True) or ''}"
+# We do definitely need gcc since populate_sdk_base.bbclass refers to
+# oe.utils.get_gcc_version() in a python expression
+HOSTTOOLS = "gcc"