diff --git a/stand/libsa/Makefile b/stand/libsa/Makefile
index 781194d0a28..284aa5452fc 100644
--- a/stand/libsa/Makefile
+++ b/stand/libsa/Makefile
@@ -167,6 +167,17 @@ SRCS+=	time.c
 .PATH: ${SRCTOP}/sys/ufs/ffs
 SRCS+=ffs_subr.c ffs_tables.c
 
+#
+# i386 has a constrained space for its /boot/loader, so compile out the
+# extensive messages diagnosing bad superblocks. i386 doesn't support UEFI
+# booting, so doing it always makes sense natively there. When we compile
+# for 32-bit on amd64, LIBSA_CPUARCH is also i386 and we use libsa32 only
+# for the BIOS /boot/loader which has the same constraints.
+#
+.if ${LIBSA_CPUARCH} == "i386"
+CFLAGS.ffs_subr.c+= -DSTANDALONE_SMALL
+.endif
+
 CFLAGS.dosfs.c+= -I${LDRSRC}
 CFLAGS.tftp.c+= -I${LDRSRC}
 CFLAGS.ufs.c+= -I${LDRSRC}
diff --git a/sys/ufs/ffs/ffs_subr.c b/sys/ufs/ffs/ffs_subr.c
index 6b2bbf41c91..01981c78249 100644
--- a/sys/ufs/ffs/ffs_subr.c
+++ b/sys/ufs/ffs/ffs_subr.c
@@ -323,7 +323,11 @@ readsuper(void *devfd, struct fs **fsp, off_t sblockloc, int isaltsblk,
  * Verify the filesystem values.
  */
 #define ILOG2(num)	(fls(num) - 1)
-#define MPRINT		if (prtmsg) printf
+#ifdef STANDALONE_SMALL
+#define MPRINT(...)	do { } while (0)
+#else
+#define MPRINT(...)	if (prtmsg) printf(__VA_ARGS__)
+#endif
 /*
  * Print error messages when bad superblock values are found.
  */