--- setup.py
+++ setup.py
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
 PY_PACKAGE = "curl"
 VERSION = "7.43.0"
 
-import glob, os, re, sys, subprocess
+import glob, os, re, sys
 import distutils
 from distutils.core import setup
 from distutils.extension import Extension
@@ -98,6 +98,7 @@
             self.library_dirs.append(os.path.join(OPENSSL_DIR, "lib"))
         CURL_CONFIG = os.environ.get('PYCURL_CURL_CONFIG', "curl-config")
         CURL_CONFIG = scan_argv(self.argv, "--curl-config=", CURL_CONFIG)
+        ''' comment out curl version checking (doesn't work while cross-compiling) - freetz provides recent enough curl version
         try:
             p = subprocess.Popen((CURL_CONFIG, '--version'),
                 stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.PIPE)
@@ -113,6 +114,9 @@
             raise ConfigurationError(msg)
         libcurl_version = stdout.decode().strip()
         print("Using %s (%s)" % (CURL_CONFIG, libcurl_version))
+        '''
+
+        ''' comment out cflags obtaining (doesn't work while cross-compiling) - in freetz no special/additional cflags are required
         p = subprocess.Popen((CURL_CONFIG, '--cflags'),
             stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.PIPE)
         stdout, stderr = p.communicate()
@@ -128,6 +132,7 @@
                     self.include_dirs.append(arg[2:])
             else:
                 self.extra_compile_args.append(arg)
+        '''
 
         # Obtain linker flags/libraries to link against.
         # In theory, all we should need is `curl-config --libs`.
@@ -154,6 +159,12 @@
         optbuf = ''
         sslhintbuf = ''
         errtext = ''
+
+        # cross-compile friendly version
+        optbuf = os.popen("'%s' --libs" % CURL_CONFIG).read()
+        sslhintbuf += optbuf
+
+        ''' comment out as it doesn't work while cross-compiling
         for option in ["--libs", "--static-libs"]:
             p = subprocess.Popen((CURL_CONFIG, option),
                 stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.PIPE)
@@ -181,6 +192,7 @@
             if errtext:
                 msg += ":\n" + errtext
             raise ConfigurationError(msg)
+        '''
 
         ssl_lib_detected = False
         if 'PYCURL_SSL_LIBRARY' in os.environ:
@@ -247,6 +259,8 @@
             ssl_lib_detected = self.detect_ssl_lib_on_centos6()
 
         if not ssl_lib_detected:
+            print("Warning: assuming cURL has been compiled without SSL support")
+            '''
             p = subprocess.Popen((CURL_CONFIG, '--features'),
                 stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.PIPE)
             stdout, stderr = p.communicate()
@@ -261,6 +275,7 @@
                     # we set the ssl flag to check for ssl library mismatch
                     # at link time and run time
                     self.define_macros.append(('HAVE_CURL_SSL', 1))
+            '''
         if not self.libraries:
             self.libraries.append("curl")
 
@@ -350,6 +365,7 @@
         self.extra_compile_args.append("-D_WIN32_WINNT=0x0501")
 
         if str.find(sys.version, "MSC") >= 0:
+            import subprocess
             self.extra_compile_args.append("-O2")
             self.extra_compile_args.append("-GF")        # enable read-only string pooling
             self.extra_compile_args.append("-WX")        # treat warnings as errors
@@ -584,6 +600,7 @@
 AUTHORS_PARAGRAPH = 3
 
 def check_authors():
+    import subprocess
     f = open('AUTHORS')
     try:
         contents = f.read()