diff --git a/frontend/meson.build b/frontend/meson.build
index 7b49c4853..a92284d02 100644
--- a/frontend/meson.build
+++ b/frontend/meson.build
@@ -103,8 +103,6 @@ if get_option('deprecated-color-management-static')
 		error('cms-static requires lcms2 which was not found. Or, you can use \'-Ddeprecated-color-management-static=false\'.')
 	endif
 
-	config_h.set('HAVE_LCMS', '1')
-
 	plugin_lcms = shared_library(
 		'cms-static',
 		srcs_lcms,
diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index e3522d29c..78e695522 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -145,6 +145,9 @@ dep_libdrm_headers = dep_libdrm.partial_dependency(compile_args: true)
 dep_threads = dependency('threads')
 
 dep_lcms2 = dependency('lcms2', version: '>= 2.9', required: false)
+if dep_lcms2.found()
+	config_h.set('HAVE_LCMS', '1')
+endif
 
 prog_python = import('python').find_installation('python3')
 files_xxd_py = files('tools/xxd.py')