diff --git a/src/cmd/go/note.go b/src/cmd/go/note.go
index 97e18651e4acca..5c953c4d004e37 100644
--- a/src/cmd/go/note.go
+++ b/src/cmd/go/note.go
@@ -69,11 +69,11 @@ func readELFNote(filename, name string, typ int32) ([]byte, error) {
 
 var elfGoNote = []byte("Go\x00\x00")
 
-// readELFGoBuildID the Go build ID string from an ELF binary.
-// The Go build ID is stored in a note described by an ELF PT_NOTE prog header.
-// The caller has already opened filename, to get f, and read the first 4 kB out, in data.
+// The Go build ID is stored in a note described by an ELF PT_NOTE prog
+// header.  The caller has already opened filename, to get f, and read
+// at least 4 kB out, in data.
 func readELFGoBuildID(filename string, f *os.File, data []byte) (buildid string, err error) {
-	// Assume the note content is in the first 4 kB, already read.
+	// Assume the note content is in the data, already read.
 	// Rewrite the ELF header to set shnum to 0, so that we can pass
 	// the data to elf.NewFile and it will decode the Prog list but not
 	// try to read the section headers and the string table from disk.
@@ -95,11 +95,31 @@ func readELFGoBuildID(filename string, f *os.File, data []byte) (buildid string,
 		return "", &os.PathError{Path: filename, Op: "parse", Err: err}
 	}
 	for _, p := range ef.Progs {
-		if p.Type != elf.PT_NOTE || p.Off >= uint64(len(data)) || p.Off+p.Filesz >= uint64(len(data)) || p.Filesz < 16 {
+		if p.Type != elf.PT_NOTE || p.Filesz < 16 {
 			continue
 		}
 
-		note := data[p.Off : p.Off+p.Filesz]
+		var note []byte
+		if p.Off+p.Filesz < uint64(len(data)) {
+			note = data[p.Off : p.Off+p.Filesz]
+		} else {
+			// For some linkers, such as the Solaris linker,
+			// the buildid may not be found in data (which
+			// likely contains the first 16kB of the file)
+			// or even the first few megabytes of the file
+			// due to differences in note segment placement;
+			// in that case, extract the note data manually.
+			_, err = f.Seek(int64(p.Off), 0)
+			if err != nil {
+				return "", err
+			}
+
+			note = make([]byte, p.Filesz)
+			_, err = io.ReadFull(f, note)
+			if err != nil {
+				return "", err
+			}
+		}
 		nameSize := ef.ByteOrder.Uint32(note)
 		valSize := ef.ByteOrder.Uint32(note[4:])
 		tag := ef.ByteOrder.Uint32(note[8:])
diff --git a/src/cmd/go/note_test.go b/src/cmd/go/note_test.go
index 2fcfe34d67e2ad..0764b73312eead 100644
--- a/src/cmd/go/note_test.go
+++ b/src/cmd/go/note_test.go
@@ -33,9 +33,6 @@ func TestNoteReading(t *testing.T) {
 		// no external linking
 		t.Logf("no external linking - skipping linkmode=external test")
 
-	case "solaris":
-		t.Logf("skipping - golang.org/issue/12178")
-
 	default:
 		tg.run("build", "-ldflags", "-buildid="+buildID+" -linkmode=external", "-o", tg.path("hello.exe"), tg.path("hello.go"))
 		id, err := main.ReadBuildIDFromBinary(tg.path("hello.exe"))
diff --git a/src/cmd/link/internal/ld/elf.go b/src/cmd/link/internal/ld/elf.go
index 187643e41b7165..baca0326a5bc61 100644
--- a/src/cmd/link/internal/ld/elf.go
+++ b/src/cmd/link/internal/ld/elf.go
@@ -1725,10 +1725,6 @@ func doelf() {
 			Addstring(shstrtab, ".note.go.pkg-list")
 			Addstring(shstrtab, ".note.go.deps")
 		}
-
-		if buildid != "" {
-			Addstring(shstrtab, ".note.go.buildid")
-		}
 	}
 
 	hasinitarr := Linkshared