diff --git a/configure b/configure
index 66928692b0..26c7bc5154 100755
--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -1780,7 +1780,7 @@ fi
 # functions to probe cross compilers
 
 container="no"
-if test $use_containers = "yes"; then
+if test $use_containers = "yes" && (has "docker" || has "podman"); then
     case $($python "$source_path"/tests/docker/docker.py probe) in
         *docker) container=docker ;;
         podman) container=podman ;;