diff --git a/src/desktop/open.cpp b/src/desktop/open.cpp
index 949b9c6e1eb7..4dcd4907ed5d 100644
--- a/src/desktop/open.cpp
+++ b/src/desktop/open.cpp
@@ -73,11 +73,11 @@ bool open_object(const std::string& path_or_url)
 	} else if(child == 0) {
 		execlp(launcher, launcher, path_or_url.c_str(), nullptr);
 		_exit(1); // This shouldn't happen.
-	} else if(waitpid(child, &child_status, 0) == -1) {
-		ERR_DU << "open_object(): waitpid() failed" << std::endl;
-		return false;
 	}
 
+	// Waiting for the child process to exit is unnecessary because we ignore SIGCHLD.
+	// See the manpage for wait(2).
+
 	if(child_status) {
 //Those status check macros seem to trigger old style casts on some compiler versions
 #pragma GCC diagnostic push
diff --git a/src/wesnoth.cpp b/src/wesnoth.cpp
index fa92fa5d7256..74f6021e3737 100644
--- a/src/wesnoth.cpp
+++ b/src/wesnoth.cpp
@@ -1015,6 +1015,11 @@ int main(int argc, char** argv)
 	sigemptyset(&terminate_handler.sa_mask);
 	sigaction(SIGTERM, &terminate_handler, nullptr);
 	sigaction(SIGINT, &terminate_handler, nullptr);
+
+	// Explicitly ignore SIGCHLD. This allows us to launch child processes without waiting
+	// for them to exit. See the manpage for wait(2).
+	terminate_handler.sa_handler = SIG_IGN;
+	sigaction(SIGCHLD, &terminate_handler, nullptr);
 #endif
 
 	//declare this here so that it will always be at the front of the event queue.