diff --git a/e17/ecore/ecore.conf b/e17/ecore/ecore.conf
index f6dadb1f0..e51f4b849 100644
--- a/e17/ecore/ecore.conf
+++ b/e17/ecore/ecore.conf
@@ -25,5 +25,10 @@ for x in libx11:x mesa:evas-gl; do
 	fi
 done
 
+# help it to detect libiconv so we can get ecore-txt
+if pkginstalled libiconv; then
+	var_append configcache ' ' ac_cv_lib_iconv_iconv=yes
+fi
+
 # work around to always utilize other e17 headers and libs ...
 var_append CC_WRAPPER_APPEND " " "-I$includedir -L$libdir"