diff --git a/dist/buildmk b/dist/buildmk
index ff2f0b67..cfb7826c 100755
--- a/dist/buildmk
+++ b/dist/buildmk
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 
 # run this in the src directory
 SYSNAME=`uname` export SYSNAME
-OBJTYPE=`uname -m -p | sed '
+OBJTYPE=`(uname -m -p 2>/dev/null || uname -m) | sed '
 	s;.*i[3-6]86.*;386;;
 	s;.*i86pc.*;386;;
 	s;.*amd64.*;x86_64;;
diff --git a/src/mkhdr b/src/mkhdr
index 053ffea2..076f4e6b 100644
--- a/src/mkhdr
+++ b/src/mkhdr
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 # if you change this, also edit ../dist/buildmk
 SYSNAME=`uname`
-OBJTYPE=`uname -m -p | sed '
+OBJTYPE=`(uname -m -p 2>/dev/null || uname -m) | sed '
 	s;.*i[3-6]86.*;386;;
 	s;.*i86pc.*;386;;
 	s;.*amd64.*;x86_64;;