diff --git a/bootstrap b/bootstrap
index b0af7ca9ec..0e02042d24 100755
--- a/bootstrap
+++ b/bootstrap
@@ -63,9 +63,9 @@ case $mode in
 generate)
 
   case $top_srcdir in
-  /* ) aclocal_dir=$top_srcdir/aclocal
+  /* ) aclocal_dir=$top_srcdir
     ;;
-  *) aclocal_dir=`pwd`/$top_srcdir/aclocal
+  *) aclocal_dir=`pwd`/$top_srcdir
     ;;
   esac
 
@@ -74,7 +74,11 @@ generate)
   dir=`dirname $i`;
   ( test "$quiet" = "true" || echo "$dir";
     cd $dir;
-    aclocal -I $aclocal_dir;
+    pat="s,\$(RTEMS_TOPdir),${aclocal_dir},g"
+    aclocal_args=`grep '^[ ]*ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS' Makefile.am | \
+      sed -e 's%.*ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS.*\=[ ]*%%g' -e $pat ` ;
+    test "$verbose" = "-v" && echo "aclocal $aclocal_args"
+    aclocal $aclocal_args;
     autoconf;
     test -n "`grep CONFIG_HEADER configure.in`" && autoheader ;
     test -f Makefile.am && automake $verbose ;