FTCBFS: m4/shout.m4 hard codes the build architecture pkg-config ices2 fails to cross build from source, because it uses the build architecture pkg-config. The cause is a bad macro in m4/shout.m4. After fixing it, ices2 cross builds successfully. Please consider applying the attached patch. . Note: I had to remove the setting of PKG_CONFIG_PATH, because Debian's cross wrapper does not work when PKG_CONFIG_PATH is set. Anyway, /usr/local/lib/pkgconfig is part of the default search path of pkg-config, so that should not be a problem.