diff --git a/srcpkgs/libt3highlight/template b/srcpkgs/libt3highlight/template
index c50eb8f7b01..0d4c7fa4acb 100644
--- a/srcpkgs/libt3highlight/template
+++ b/srcpkgs/libt3highlight/template
@@ -3,9 +3,9 @@ pkgname=libt3highlight
 version=0.5.0
 revision=1
 build_style=configure
-configure_args="--prefix=/usr"
-hostmakedepends="pkg-config gettext"
-makedepends="libtool gettext-devel pcre2-devel libt3config-devel"
+configure_args="--prefix=/usr LIBTOOL=./hack/libtool"
+hostmakedepends="pkg-config gettext autoconf automake libtool"
+makedepends="gettext-devel pcre2-devel libt3config-devel"
 short_desc="Tilde Terminal Toolkit's library for syntax highlighting"
 maintainer="Andrew Benson <abenson+void@gmail.com>"
 license="GPL-3.0-or-later"
@@ -13,7 +13,22 @@ homepage="https://os.ghalkes.nl/t3/libt3highlight.html"
 distfiles="https://os.ghalkes.nl/dist/libt3highlight-${version}.tar.bz2"
 checksum=8216190785e52a116f9f78ec6513815745904c2aaf70d0a0a09438e08640dfbb
 
-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)
+}
 
 libt3highlight-devel_package() {
 	short_desc+=" - development files"