diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index 08f39306a29..50d067984ca 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -996,7 +996,7 @@ has_mako = run_command(
 from distutils.version import StrictVersion
 import mako
 assert StrictVersion(mako.__version__) > StrictVersion("0.8.0")
-  ''')
+  ''', check: false)
 if has_mako.returncode() != 0
   error('Python (3.x) mako module >= 0.8.0 required to build mesa.')
 endif