diff --git a/src/frontends/gnome/configure.ac b/src/frontends/gnome/configure.ac
index 12af5ebfc6..53266a7c80 100644
--- a/src/frontends/gnome/configure.ac
+++ b/src/frontends/gnome/configure.ac
@@ -35,8 +35,9 @@ AC_PROG_GCC_TRADITIONAL
 AC_FUNC_MEMCMP
 AC_CHECK_FUNCS(select socket uname)
 
-AC_SEARCH_LIBS([dlopen], [dl dld], [], [ac_cv_search_dlopen=])
-AC_SUBST([DL_LIBS], "$ac_cv_search_dlopen")
+LIBS=""
+AC_SEARCH_LIBS([dlopen], [dl dld], [DL_LIBS=$LIBS])
+AC_SUBST([DL_LIBS])
 
 AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION([0.19])
 AM_GNU_GETTEXT([external])