diff --git a/package/poppler/poppler.mk b/package/poppler/poppler.mk
index a2bb7e3049..37566504e9 100644
--- a/package/poppler/poppler.mk
+++ b/package/poppler/poppler.mk
@@ -20,6 +20,9 @@ POPPLER_CONF_OPTS = \
 	-DENABLE_GOBJECT_INTROSPECTION=OFF \
 	-DENABLE_GTK_DOC=OFF
 
+# cmake older than 3.10 requires this to avoid try_run() in FindThreads
+POPPLER_CONF_OPTS += -DTHREADS_HAVE_PTHREAD_ARG=ON
+
 ifeq ($(BR2_TOOLCHAIN_HAS_LIBATOMIC),y)
 POPPLER_CONF_OPTS += -DCMAKE_CXX_FLAGS="$(TARGET_CXXFLAGS) -latomic"
 endif