diff --git a/aclocal.m4 b/aclocal.m4
index a47eba42c..16ef69c85 100644
--- a/aclocal.m4
+++ b/aclocal.m4
@@ -25,9 +25,11 @@ AC_SUBST(install_suffix)
 # Unwarranted assumptions:
 #   - the object file produced by AC_COMPILE_IFELSE is called "conftest.$ac_objext"
 #   - the nm(1) utility is available, and its name is "nm".
+# Here use $NM because they can cause issue in cross-compiling and because is
+# not possible use a different NM implementation (like llvm-nm)
 AC_DEFUN([_AX_C_UNDERSCORES_MATCH_IF],
 [AC_COMPILE_IFELSE([AC_LANG_SOURCE([void underscore(void){}])],
-[AS_IF([nm conftest.$ac_objext|grep $1 >/dev/null 2>/dev/null],[$2],[$3])],
+[AS_IF([$NM conftest.$ac_objext|grep $1 >/dev/null 2>/dev/null],[$2],[$3])],
 [AC_MSG_ERROR([underscore test crashed])]
 )])