diff --git a/private/ragel/ragel.SlackBuild b/private/ragel/ragel.SlackBuild
index b830fe1..083354d 100755
--- a/private/ragel/ragel.SlackBuild
+++ b/private/ragel/ragel.SlackBuild
@@ -87,6 +87,7 @@ find -L . \
 if [ "$LIBDIRSUFFIX" = "64" ]; then
   patch --verbose -p1 -i $CWD/lib64.patch
 fi
+patch --verbose -p1 -i $CWD/shared-colm.patch
 
 CFLAGS="$SLKCFLAGS" \
 CXXFLAGS="$SLKCFLAGS" \
diff --git a/private/ragel/shared-colm.patch b/private/ragel/shared-colm.patch
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3f26ae5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/private/ragel/shared-colm.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
+index e1a0fc67..07a2b075 100644
+--- a/configure.ac
++++ b/configure.ac
+@@ -59,6 +59,26 @@ AC_CHECK_FILES(
+        [],
+        [AC_ERROR([colm is required to build ragel])]
+ )
++
++dnl If the .la files are present use those, otherwise locate the libs with AC_CHECK_LIB.
++AC_CHECK_FILES(
++       [$LIBCOLM_LA $LIBFSM_LA],
++       [],
++       [
++               AC_CHECK_LIB(
++                       [colm],
++                       [colm_run_program],
++                       [LIBCOLM_LA=-lcolm],
++                       [AC_ERROR([libcolm is required to build ragel])]
++               )
++               AC_CHECK_LIB(
++                       [fsm],
++                       [libfsm_present],
++                       [LIBFSM_LA=-lfsm],
++                       [AC_ERROR([libfsm is required to build ragel])]
++               )
++       ]
++)
+ AC_SUBST(COLM)
+ AC_SUBST(COLM_WRAP)
+ AC_SUBST(COLM_SHARE)