diff --git a/src/05_prepare_sysroot.sh b/src/05_prepare_sysroot.sh
index a6dfd09c2..e1fa1e973 100755
--- a/src/05_prepare_sysroot.sh
+++ b/src/05_prepare_sysroot.sh
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ SYSROOT="$PWD/sysroot"
 GCC_INTERNAL_PATH=$(dirname $(gcc -print-libgcc-file-name))
 
 cat << CEOF > sysroot.specs
-*link_libgcc
+*link_libgcc:
 -L$SYSROOT/lib -L$SYSROOT/lib64 -L$SYSROOT/usr/lib -L$SYSROOT/usr/lib64 -L$SYSROOT/usr/local/lib -L$SYSROOT/usr/local/lib64 -L$GCC_INTERNAL_PATH
 CEOF
 
diff --git a/src/minimal_overlay/bundles/nweb/bundle.sh b/src/minimal_overlay/bundles/nweb/bundle.sh
index 6ecda4986..41e54f975 100755
--- a/src/minimal_overlay/bundles/nweb/bundle.sh
+++ b/src/minimal_overlay/bundles/nweb/bundle.sh
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 
 SRC_DIR=$(pwd)
 
-. ../common.sh
+. ../../common.sh
 
 # Find the main source directory
 cd ../../..
diff --git a/src/minimal_overlay/common.sh b/src/minimal_overlay/common.sh
index 681ef84ef..9bda67606 100755
--- a/src/minimal_overlay/common.sh
+++ b/src/minimal_overlay/common.sh
@@ -1,24 +1,37 @@
 #!/bin/sh
-# common code use by almost all bundles
-# this should be sourced in bundle.sh of every bundle
+# common code used by all bundles
+# should be included at the top of every *.sh file of each bundle
 
-# Read the 'JOB_FACTOR' property from '.config'
-JOB_FACTOR="$(grep -i ^JOB_FACTOR $MAIN_SRC_DIR/.config | cut -f2 -d'=')"
+export MAIN_SRC_DIR=$(realpath --no-symlinks $PWD/../../../)
+export WORK_DIR="$MAIN_SRC_DIR/work"
+export SRC_DIR=$(pwd)
+export CONFIG="$MAIN_SRC_DIR/.config"
+export SYSROOT="$WORK_DIR/sysroot"
+export SYSROOT_SPECS="$WORK_DIR/sysroot.specs"
 
-# Read the 'CFLAGS' property from '.config'
-CFLAGS="$(grep -i ^CFLAGS $MAIN_SRC_DIR/.config | cut -f2 -d'=')"
+# Read the 'JOB_FACTOR' property from $CONFIG
+export JOB_FACTOR="$(grep -i ^JOB_FACTOR $CONFIG | cut -f2 -d'=')"
 
-# Find the number of available CPU cores.
-NUM_CORES=$(grep ^processor /proc/cpuinfo | wc -l)
+# Read the 'CFLAGS' property from $CONFIG
+export CFLAGS="$(grep -i ^CFLAGS $CONFIG | cut -f2 -d'=')"
 
-# Calculate the number of 'make' jobs to be used later.
-NUM_JOBS=$((NUM_CORES * JOB_FACTOR))
+# Find the number of available CPU cores
+export NUM_CORES="$(grep ^processor /proc/cpuinfo | wc -l)"
 
-# sysroot
+# Calculate the number of make "jobs"
+export NUM_JOBS=$((NUM_CORES * JOB_FACTOR))
 
-# some of these are duplicate, but there are always bad packages that ignore one of these
-SPECS=$PWD/../../../work/sysroot.specs
-CC="gcc -specs=$SPECS -static-libgcc -Wl,-nostdlib"
-CFLAGSC="-specs=$SPECS -static-libgcc $CFLAGS -Wl,-nostdlib"
-CPPFLAGS="-specs=$SPECS -static-libgcc $CPPFLAGS -Wl,-nostdlib"
-LDFLAGS="-Wl,-nostdlib $(grep -- \"-L\" $SPECS)"
+# Ideally we would export MAKE at this point with -j etc to allow programs to just run $(MAKE) and not worry about extra flags that need to be passed
+#  export MAKE="${MAKE-make} -j $NUM_JOBS"
+
+# sysroot flags for the compiler
+
+#-Wl,-nostdlib is required to make ld / gcc ignore the host's /usr/lib and /lib
+ld_flags="-Wl,-nostdlib $(grep -- \"-L\" $SYSROOT_SPECS)"
+#-static-libgcc is neeeded since we don't have the gcc-libs in our sysroot
+gcc_flags="-specs=$SYSROOT_SPECS -static-libgcc"
+
+# $ld_flags is passed 2 times because sometimes bundles ignore one of the variables
+export CC="${CC-gcc} $gcc_flags $ld_flags"
+export CFLAGS="$CFLAGS"
+export LDFLAGS="$LDFLAGS $ld_flags"