diff --git a/dlls/ntdll/unix/loader.c b/dlls/ntdll/unix/loader.c
index a8e7530c0ca..73dfb7b6c7e 100644
--- a/dlls/ntdll/unix/loader.c
+++ b/dlls/ntdll/unix/loader.c
@@ -26,11 +26,15 @@
 #include "wine/port.h"
 
 #include <assert.h>
+#include <errno.h>
 #include <stdarg.h>
 #include <stdio.h>
 #ifdef HAVE_SYS_MMAN_H
 # include <sys/mman.h>
 #endif
+#ifdef HAVE_SYS_RESOURCE_H
+# include <sys/resource.h>
+#endif
 #ifdef HAVE_SYS_UTSNAME_H
 #include <sys/utsname.h>
 #endif
@@ -558,6 +562,121 @@ static void apple_main_thread(void)
 }
 #endif  /* __APPLE__ */
 
+
+#ifdef __ANDROID__
+
+static int pre_exec(void)
+{
+#if defined(__i386__) || defined(__x86_64__)
+    return 1;  /* we have a preloader */
+#else
+    return 0;  /* no exec needed */
+#endif
+}
+
+#elif defined(__linux__) && (defined(__i386__) || defined(__arm__))
+
+static void check_vmsplit( void *stack )
+{
+    if (stack < (void *)0x80000000)
+    {
+        /* if the stack is below 0x80000000, assume we can safely try a munmap there */
+        if (munmap( (void *)0x80000000, 1 ) == -1 && errno == EINVAL)
+            ERR( "Warning: memory above 0x80000000 doesn't seem to be accessible.\n"
+                 "Wine requires a 3G/1G user/kernel memory split to work properly.\n" );
+    }
+}
+
+static void set_max_limit( int limit )
+{
+    struct rlimit rlimit;
+
+    if (!getrlimit( limit, &rlimit ))
+    {
+        rlimit.rlim_cur = rlimit.rlim_max;
+        setrlimit( limit, &rlimit );
+    }
+}
+
+static int pre_exec(void)
+{
+    int temp;
+
+    check_vmsplit( &temp );
+    set_max_limit( RLIMIT_AS );
+#ifdef __i386__
+    return 1;  /* we have a preloader on x86 */
+#else
+    return 0;
+#endif
+}
+
+#elif defined(__linux__) && (defined(__x86_64__) || defined(__aarch64__))
+
+static int pre_exec(void)
+{
+    return 1;  /* we have a preloader on x86-64/arm64 */
+}
+
+#elif defined(__APPLE__) && (defined(__i386__) || defined(__x86_64__))
+
+static int pre_exec(void)
+{
+    return 1;  /* we have a preloader */
+}
+
+#elif (defined(__FreeBSD__) || defined (__FreeBSD_kernel__) || defined(__DragonFly__))
+
+static int pre_exec(void)
+{
+    struct rlimit rl;
+
+    rl.rlim_cur = 0x02000000;
+    rl.rlim_max = 0x02000000;
+    setrlimit( RLIMIT_DATA, &rl );
+    return 1;
+}
+
+#else
+
+static int pre_exec(void)
+{
+    return 0;  /* no exec needed */
+}
+
+#endif
+
+
+/***********************************************************************
+ *           check_command_line
+ *
+ * Check if command line is one that needs to be handled specially.
+ */
+static void check_command_line( int argc, char *argv[] )
+{
+    static const char usage[] =
+        "Usage: wine PROGRAM [ARGUMENTS...]   Run the specified program\n"
+        "       wine --help                   Display this help and exit\n"
+        "       wine --version                Output version information and exit";
+
+    if (argc <= 1)
+    {
+        fprintf( stderr, "%s\n", usage );
+        exit(1);
+    }
+    if (!strcmp( argv[1], "--help" ))
+    {
+        printf( "%s\n", usage );
+        exit(0);
+    }
+    if (!strcmp( argv[1], "--version" ))
+    {
+        printf( "%s\n", get_build_id() );
+        exit(0);
+    }
+}
+
+
 /***********************************************************************
  *           __wine_main
  *
@@ -571,6 +690,21 @@ void __wine_main( int argc, char *argv[], char *envp[] )
     HMODULE module;
 
     wine_init_argv0_path( argv[0] );
+
+    if (!getenv( "WINELOADERNOEXEC" ))  /* first time around */
+    {
+        static char noexec[] = "WINELOADERNOEXEC=1";
+
+        putenv( noexec );
+        check_command_line( argc, argv );
+        if (pre_exec())
+        {
+            wine_exec_wine_binary( NULL, argv, getenv( "WINELOADER" ));
+            ERR( "could not exec the wine loader\n" );
+            exit(1);
+        }
+    }
+
     __wine_main_argc = argc;
     __wine_main_argv = argv;
     __wine_main_environ = envp;
diff --git a/loader/main.c b/loader/main.c
index 9f9165ff936..0e6b6f66b50 100644
--- a/loader/main.c
+++ b/loader/main.c
@@ -279,6 +279,14 @@ int main( int argc, char *argv[] )
     int i;
     void *handle;
 
+    if ((handle = load_ntdll( argv[0] )))
+    {
+        void (*init_func)(int, char **, char **) = dlsym( handle, "__wine_main" );
+        if (init_func) init_func( argc, argv, environ );
+        fprintf( stderr, "wine: __wine_main function not found in ntdll.so\n" );
+        exit(1);
+    }
+
     if (!getenv( "WINELOADERNOEXEC" ))  /* first time around */
     {
         static char noexec[] = "WINELOADERNOEXEC=1";
@@ -294,14 +302,6 @@ int main( int argc, char *argv[] )
         }
     }
 
-    if ((handle = load_ntdll( argv[0] )))
-    {
-        void (*init_func)(int, char **, char **) = dlsym( handle, "__wine_main" );
-        if (init_func) init_func( argc, argv, environ );
-        fprintf( stderr, "wine: __wine_main function not found in ntdll.so\n" );
-        exit(1);
-    }
-
     if (wine_main_preload_info)
     {
         for (i = 0; wine_main_preload_info[i].size; i++)