diff --git a/rustup-init.sh b/rustup-init.sh
index a7853c0d36..7c46294c96 100755
--- a/rustup-init.sh
+++ b/rustup-init.sh
@@ -104,6 +104,43 @@ main() {
     return "$_retval"
 }
 
+get_bitness() {
+    need_cmd head
+    # Architecture detection without dependencies beyond coreutils.
+    # ELF files start out "\x7fELF", and the following byte is
+    #   0x01 for 32-bit and
+    #   0x02 for 64-bit.
+    # The printf builtin on some shells like dash only supports octal
+    # escape sequences, so we use those.
+    local _current_exe_head=$(head -c 5 /proc/self/exe )
+    if [ "$_current_exe_head" = "$(printf '\177ELF\001')" ]; then
+        echo 32
+    elif [ "$_current_exe_head" = "$(printf '\177ELF\002')" ]; then
+        echo 64
+    else
+        err "unknown platform bitness"
+    fi
+}
+
+get_endianness() {
+    local cputype=$1
+    local suffix_eb=$2
+    local suffix_el=$3
+
+    # detect endianness without od/hexdump, like get_bitness() does.
+    need_cmd head
+    need_cmd tail
+
+    local _current_exe_endianness="$(head -c 6 /proc/self/exe | tail -c 1)"
+    if [ "$_current_exe_endianness" = "$(printf '\001')" ]; then
+        echo "${cputype}${suffix_el}"
+    elif [ "$_current_exe_endianness" = "$(printf '\002')" ]; then
+        echo "${cputype}${suffix_eb}"
+    else
+        err "unknown platform endianness"
+    fi
+}
+
 get_architecture() {
 
     local _ostype="$(uname -s)"
@@ -172,6 +209,26 @@ get_architecture() {
             local _cputype=x86_64
             ;;
 
+        mips)
+            local _cputype="$(get_endianness $_cputype "" 'el')"
+            ;;
+
+        mips64)
+            local _bitness="$(get_bitness)"
+            if [ $_bitness = "32" ]; then
+                if [ $_ostype = "unknown-linux-gnu" ]; then
+                    # 64-bit kernel with 32-bit userland
+                    # endianness suffix is appended later
+                    local _cputype=mips
+                fi
+            else
+                # only n64 ABI is supported for now
+                local _ostype="${_ostype}abi64"
+            fi
+
+            local _cputype="$(get_endianness $_cputype "" 'el')"
+            ;;
+
         ppc)
             local _cputype=powerpc
             ;;
@@ -191,15 +248,7 @@ get_architecture() {
 
     # Detect 64-bit linux with 32-bit userland
     if [ $_ostype = unknown-linux-gnu -a $_cputype = x86_64 ]; then
-        need_cmd head
-        # Architecture detection without dependencies beyond coreutils.
-        # ELF files start out "\x7fELF", and the following byte is
-        #   0x01 for 32-bit and
-        #   0x02 for 64-bit.
-        # The printf builtin on some shells like dash only supports octal
-        # escape sequences, so we use those.
-        local _current_exe_head=$(head -c 5 /proc/self/exe )
-        if [ "$_current_exe_head" = "$(printf '\177ELF\001')" ]; then
+        if [ "$(get_bitness)" = "32" ]; then
             local _cputype=i686
         fi
     fi