diff --git a/srcpkgs/libt3key/template b/srcpkgs/libt3key/template
index 6e1b9b2ed2d..0e2c67e27a0 100644
--- a/srcpkgs/libt3key/template
+++ b/srcpkgs/libt3key/template
@@ -4,23 +4,37 @@ version=0.2.11
 revision=1
 build_helper=qemu
 build_style=configure
-configure_args="--prefix=/usr"
-hostmakedepends="pkg-config gettext"
-makedepends="libtool gettext-devel libt3config-devel ncurses-libtinfo-devel"
+configure_args="--prefix=/usr LIBTOOL=./hack/libtool"
+hostmakedepends="pkg-config gettext autoconf automake libtool"
+makedepends="gettext-devel libt3config-devel ncurses-libtinfo-devel"
 short_desc="Tilde Terminal Toolkit's library for key sequences"
 maintainer="Andrew Benson <abenson+void@gmail.com>"
 license="GPL-3.0-or-later"
 homepage="https://os.ghalkes.nl/t3/libt3key.html"
 distfiles="https://os.ghalkes.nl/dist/libt3key-${version}.tar.bz2"
 checksum=e4dfdef50be52e365f68745df6177e819df5a7600e61716063d5480f7db3c06c
-nocross="broken non-standard configure script"
-
-export LIBTOOL=${XBPS_CROSS_BASE}/usr/bin/libtool
 
 if [ "$CROSS_BUILD" ]; then
 	export QEMU_USER_STATIC=qemu-${XBPS_TARGET_QEMU_MACHINE}-static
 fi
 
+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=$XBPS_CROSS_BASE)
+}
+
 libt3key-devel_package() {
 	short_desc+=" - development files"
 	depends="${makedepends} ${sourcepkg}>=${version}_${revision}"