diff --git a/package/sconeserver/Config.in b/package/sconeserver/Config.in
index 3040dddbbb..0e8a995090 100644
--- a/package/sconeserver/Config.in
+++ b/package/sconeserver/Config.in
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ menuconfig BR2_PACKAGE_SCONESERVER
 	depends on BR2_INSTALL_LIBSTDCPP
 	depends on BR2_TOOLCHAIN_HAS_THREADS_NPTL
 	depends on !BR2_STATIC_LIBS # dlopen()
+	select BR2_PACKAGE_PCRE
 	select BR2_PACKAGE_ZLIB
 	help
 	  Sconeserver is a modular, object-orientated and extremely
diff --git a/package/sconeserver/sconeserver.mk b/package/sconeserver/sconeserver.mk
index bfbd5dc6ed..89abc8d3b2 100644
--- a/package/sconeserver/sconeserver.mk
+++ b/package/sconeserver/sconeserver.mk
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ SCONESERVER_LICENSE = GPL-2.0+
 SCONESERVER_LICENSE_FILES = COPYING
 SCONESERVER_DEPENDENCIES = \
 	host-pkgconf \
-	$(if $(BR2_PACKAGE_PCRE),pcre) \
+	pcre \
 	zlib
 # disable image as it fails to build with ImageMagick
 # disable markdown module because its git submodule cmark