diff --git a/src/daemon/main.c b/src/daemon/main.c
index f381e8afb..150ce6d64 100644
--- a/src/daemon/main.c
+++ b/src/daemon/main.c
@@ -711,6 +711,10 @@ int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
          * first take the autospawn lock to make things
          * synchronous. */
 
+        /* This locking and thread synchronisation code doesn't work reliably
+         * on kFreeBSD (Debian bug #705435), or in upstream FreeBSD ports
+         * (bug reference: ports/128947, patched in SVN r231972). */
+#if !defined(__FreeBSD__) && !defined(__FreeBSD_kernel__)
         if ((autospawn_fd = pa_autospawn_lock_init()) < 0) {
             pa_log("Failed to initialize autospawn lock");
             goto finish;
@@ -722,6 +726,7 @@ int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
         }
 
         autospawn_locked = true;
+#endif
     }
 
     if (conf->daemonize) {