Index: gstreamer0.11/gst/gstregistry.c
===================================================================
--- gstreamer0.11.orig/gst/gstregistry.c	2011-12-12 11:50:39.093747189 +0100
+++ gstreamer0.11/gst/gstregistry.c	2011-12-12 11:50:41.941747231 +0100
@@ -121,6 +121,10 @@
 #include <stdio.h>
 #include <string.h>
 
+#ifdef HAVE_SYS_UTSNAME_H
+#include <sys/utsname.h>
+#endif
+
 /* For g_stat () */
 #include <glib/gstdio.h>
 
@@ -1507,6 +1511,9 @@
    * path, and the plugins installed in the user's home directory */
   plugin_path = g_getenv ("GST_PLUGIN_SYSTEM_PATH");
   if (plugin_path == NULL) {
+#if defined(__linux__) && defined (__i386__)
+    struct utsname uts;
+#endif
     char *home_plugins, *backwards_compat_plugins;
 
     GST_DEBUG ("GST_PLUGIN_SYSTEM_PATH not set");
@@ -1527,6 +1534,16 @@
     /* finally, look in the /usr/lib backwards-compatibility path. */
     backwards_compat_plugins = g_build_filename ("/usr/lib",
         "gstreamer-" GST_MAJORMINOR, NULL);
+#if defined(__linux__) && defined (__i386__)
+    uname(&uts);
+    if (!strcmp("x86_64", uts.machine)
+         && !access("/usr/lib32/gstreamer-0.10", R_OK|X_OK))
+    {
+       g_free (backwards_compat_plugins);
+       backwards_compat_plugins = g_build_filename ("/usr/lib32",
+           "gstreamer-" GST_MAJORMINOR, NULL);
+    }
+#endif
     GST_DEBUG ("scanning plugins %s", backwards_compat_plugins);
     changed |= gst_registry_scan_path_internal (&context, backwards_compat_plugins);
     g_free (backwards_compat_plugins);