diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index 08521fe7ea..7fd0e835e9 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -919,8 +919,7 @@ if not get_option('apparmor_profiles').disabled()
   endif
 endif
 
-# FIXME rewrite to use dependency() once we can use 2.4.48
-attr_dep = cc.find_library('attr', required: get_option('attr'))
+attr_dep = dependency('libattr', required: get_option('attr'))
 if attr_dep.found()
   conf.set('WITH_LIBATTR', 1)
 endif