diff --git a/m4/acinclude.m4 b/m4/acinclude.m4
index 0f5042422d..05ac0178ea 100644
--- a/m4/acinclude.m4
+++ b/m4/acinclude.m4
@@ -963,7 +963,7 @@ AC_DEFUN([OCTAVE_CHECK_LIB], [
       if test -z "$m4_toupper([$1])_LDFLAGS"; then
         m4_toupper([$1])_LDFLAGS="$($PKG_CONFIG --libs-only-L m4_default([$9], [$1]) | $SED -e 's/^ *$//')"
       fi
-      m4_toupper([$1])_LIBS="$($PKG_CONFIG --libs-only-l m4_default([$9], [$1]) | $SED -e 's/^ *$//')"
+      m4_toupper([$1])_LIBS="$($PKG_CONFIG --libs-only-l --libs-only-other m4_default([$9], [$1]) | $SED -e 's/^ *$//')"
     ])
   fi
 
@@ -2194,7 +2194,7 @@ AC_DEFUN([OCTAVE_CHECK_QT_VERSION], [AC_MSG_CHECKING([Qt version $1])
       ## Retrieve Qt compilation and linker flags
       QT_CPPFLAGS="$($PKG_CONFIG --cflags-only-I $QT_MODULES | $SED -e 's/^ *$//')"
       QT_LDFLAGS="$($PKG_CONFIG --libs-only-L $QT_MODULES | $SED -e 's/^ *$//')"
-      QT_LIBS="$($PKG_CONFIG --libs-only-l $QT_MODULES | $SED -e 's/^ *$//')"
+      QT_LIBS="$($PKG_CONFIG --libs-only-l --libs-only-other $QT_MODULES | $SED -e 's/^ *$//')"
 
       case $host_os in
         *darwin*)