diff --git a/srcpkgs/emacs/template b/srcpkgs/emacs/template
index b3130b1198..d876ebfe16 100644
--- a/srcpkgs/emacs/template
+++ b/srcpkgs/emacs/template
@@ -39,9 +39,15 @@ desc_option_m17n="Enable support for m17n multilingual text processing"
 desc_option_nativecomp="Enable support for native compilation"
 desc_option_sound="Enable support for sound"
 desc_option_xpm="Enable support for XPM images"
-build_options_default="cairo gif gmp gnutls harfbuzz jpeg json m17n nativecomp
+build_options_default="cairo gif gmp gnutls harfbuzz jpeg json m17n
  png sound svg tiff xml xpm"
 
+case "$XBPS_TARGET_MACHINE" in
+	ppc64*) build_options_default+=" nativecomp";;
+	ppc*) ;; # assembler errors
+	*) build_options_default+=" nativecomp";;
+esac
+
 pre_configure() {
 	# Just configuring in different directories results in
 	# spurious emacs rebuilds with incompatible build numbers.