diff --git a/package/gdb/Config.in b/package/gdb/Config.in
index 4c787d49a1..48ec3e0202 100644
--- a/package/gdb/Config.in
+++ b/package/gdb/Config.in
@@ -49,11 +49,6 @@ config BR2_PACKAGE_GDB_SERVER
 	bool "gdbserver"
 	depends on !BR2_TOOLCHAIN_EXTERNAL_GDB_SERVER_COPY
 	depends on !BR2_riscv
-	# Simultaneous build of gdbserver and full gdb is not possible
-	# with arc-2019.09. This bug comes from upstream GDB. So
-	# simultaneous usage of full gdb and gdbserver is temporaly
-	# disabled for ARC until a fix becomes available.
-	depends on !(BR2_arc && BR2_PACKAGE_GDB_DEBUGGER)
 	help
 	  Build the gdbserver stub to run on the target.
 	  A full gdb is needed to debug the progam.
diff --git a/package/gdb/gdb.mk b/package/gdb/gdb.mk
index 6b63a6214b..2e5588bfbc 100644
--- a/package/gdb/gdb.mk
+++ b/package/gdb/gdb.mk
@@ -12,6 +12,9 @@ ifeq ($(BR2_arc),y)
 GDB_SITE = $(call github,foss-for-synopsys-dwc-arc-processors,binutils-gdb,$(GDB_VERSION))
 GDB_SOURCE = gdb-$(GDB_VERSION).tar.gz
 GDB_FROM_GIT = y
+# recent gdb versions (>= 10) have gdbserver moved at the top-level,
+# which requires a different build logic.
+GDB_GDBSERVER_TOPLEVEL = y
 endif
 
 ifeq ($(BR2_csky),y)
@@ -23,23 +26,22 @@ endif
 GDB_LICENSE = GPL-2.0+, LGPL-2.0+, GPL-3.0+, LGPL-3.0+
 GDB_LICENSE_FILES = COPYING COPYING.LIB COPYING3 COPYING3.LIB
 
-# We only want gdbserver and not the entire debugger.
-ifeq ($(BR2_PACKAGE_GDB_DEBUGGER),)
+# On gdb < 10, if you want to build only gdbserver, you need to
+# configure only gdb/gdbserver.
+ifeq ($(BR2_PACKAGE_GDB_DEBUGGER)$(GDB_GDBSERVER_TOPLEVEL),)
 GDB_SUBDIR = gdb/gdbserver
-else
-GDB_DEPENDENCIES = ncurses \
-	$(if $(BR2_PACKAGE_LIBICONV),libiconv)
-GDB_SUBDIR = build
 
-# Since gdb 9, in-tree builds for GDB are not allowed anymore,
-# so we create a 'build' subdirectory in the gdb sources, and
-# build from there.
+# When we want to build the full gdb, or for very recent versions of
+# gdb with gdbserver at the top-level, out of tree build is mandatory,
+# so we create a 'build' subdirectory in the gdb sources, and build
+# from there.
+else
+GDB_SUBDIR = build
 define GDB_CONFIGURE_SYMLINK
 	mkdir -p $(@D)/$(GDB_SUBDIR)
 	ln -sf ../configure $(@D)/$(GDB_SUBDIR)/configure
 endef
 GDB_PRE_CONFIGURE_HOOKS += GDB_CONFIGURE_SYMLINK
-
 endif
 
 # For the host variant, we really want to build with XML support,
@@ -137,13 +139,29 @@ GDB_CONF_OPTS = \
 	--without-x \
 	--disable-sim \
 	$(GDB_DISABLE_BINUTILS_CONF_OPTS) \
-	$(if $(BR2_PACKAGE_GDB_SERVER),--enable-gdbserver,--disable-gdbserver) \
-	--with-curses \
 	--without-included-gettext \
 	--disable-werror \
 	--enable-static \
 	--without-mpfr
 
+ifeq ($(BR2_PACKAGE_GDB_DEBUGGER),y)
+GDB_CONF_OPTS += \
+	--enable-gdb \
+	--with-curses
+GDB_DEPENDENCIES = ncurses \
+	$(if $(BR2_PACKAGE_LIBICONV),libiconv)
+else
+GDB_CONF_OPTS += \
+	--disable-gdb \
+	--without-curses
+endif
+
+ifeq ($(BR2_PACKAGE_GDB_SERVER),y)
+GDB_CONF_OPTS += --enable-gdbserver
+else
+GDB_CONF_OPTS += --disable-gdbserver
+endif
+
 # When gdb is built as C++ application for ARC it segfaults at runtime
 # So we pass --disable-build-with-cxx config option to force gdb not to
 # be built as C++ app.