diff --git a/pkgs/development/compilers/colm/cross-compile.patch b/pkgs/development/compilers/colm/cross-compile.patch
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..470ea23aaf1b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/development/compilers/colm/cross-compile.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+--- a/configure.ac	2019-07-09 22:41:03.166948024 -0700
++++ b/configure.ac	2019-07-09 22:41:16.699948056 -0700
+@@ -40,9 +40,7 @@
+ 
+ dnl Choose a default for the build_manual var. If the dist file is present in
+ dnl the root then default to no, otherwise go for it.
+-AC_CHECK_FILES( [$srcdir/DIST], 
+-	[. $srcdir/DIST;], 
+-	[build_manual=yes; ] )
++build_manual=yes;
+ 
+ dnl Set to true if the manual should be built.
+ AM_CONDITIONAL(BUILD_MANUAL, [test "x$build_manual" = "xyes"])
diff --git a/pkgs/development/compilers/colm/default.nix b/pkgs/development/compilers/colm/default.nix
index 888750efdf97..237a80280ec8 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/compilers/colm/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/compilers/colm/default.nix
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-{ stdenv, fetchurl, makeWrapper, gcc, asciidoc }:
+{ stdenv, fetchurl, makeWrapper, gcc, asciidoc, autoreconfHook }:
 
 stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   name = "colm-${version}";
@@ -9,7 +9,9 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     sha256 = "0f76iri173l2wja2v7qrwmf958cqwh5g9x4bhj2z8wknmlla6gz4";
   };
 
-  nativeBuildInputs = [ makeWrapper asciidoc ];
+  patches = [ ./cross-compile.patch ];
+
+  nativeBuildInputs = [ makeWrapper asciidoc autoreconfHook ];
 
   doCheck = true;