diff --git a/srcpkgs/libt3widget/template b/srcpkgs/libt3widget/template
index 27efdf5961c..402285d544e 100644
--- a/srcpkgs/libt3widget/template
+++ b/srcpkgs/libt3widget/template
@@ -3,9 +3,9 @@ pkgname=libt3widget
 version=1.2.2
 revision=2
 build_style=configure
-configure_args="--prefix=/usr"
-hostmakedepends="pkg-config gettext"
-makedepends="libtool gettext-devel libtranscript-devel libunistring-devel
+configure_args="--prefix=/usr LIBTOOL=./hack/libtool"
+hostmakedepends="pkg-config gettext autoconf automake libtool"
+makedepends="gettext-devel libtranscript-devel libunistring-devel
  libt3config-devel libt3window-devel libt3key-devel ncurses-libtinfo-devel
  pcre2-devel libxcb-devel gpm-devel"
 short_desc="Tilde Terminal Toolkit's widget libary"
@@ -15,7 +15,22 @@ homepage="https://os.ghalkes.nl/t3/libt3widget.html"
 distfiles="https://os.ghalkes.nl/dist/libt3widget-${version}.tar.bz2"
 checksum=9eb7e1d0ccdfc917f18ba1785a2edb4faa6b0af8b460653d962abf91136ddf1c
 
-export LIBTOOL=${XBPS_CROSS_BASE}/usr/bin/libtool
+pre_configure() {
+	# project uses libtool without autoconf, which is not really viable
+	# since autoconf is supposed to configure libtool.
+	mkdir -p hack
+	cat <<-EOF >hack/configure.ac
+	AC_INIT
+	LT_INIT
+	AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIRS([m4])
+	AC_LANG([C])
+	AC_LANG([C++])
+	LT_LANG([C])
+	LT_LANG([C++])
+	AC_OUTPUT
+	EOF
+	(cd hack;  autoreconf -fi; libtoolize -i; ./configure --host=$XBPS_CROSS_TRIPLET --build=$XBPS_TRIPLET --with-libtool-sysroot=$XBPS_CROSS_BASE)
+}
 
 libt3widget-devel_package() {
 	short_desc+=" - development files"