diff --git a/m4/dune_all.m4 b/m4/dune_all.m4
index fe7580a3001fa6426db429d79d18c3171c13a47f..3bb22eb35084206280ebf52d07ab1448e529406f 100644
--- a/m4/dune_all.m4
+++ b/m4/dune_all.m4
@@ -180,7 +180,7 @@ AC_DEFUN([DUNE_CHECK_ALL_M],[
     AC_HELP_STRING([--with-hostid=HOST_IDENTIFIER],
                  [host identifier used for automated test runs]))
   if test "x$with_hostid" = "xno" ; then 
-    with_hostid="$ac_hostname ($(uname -sm), $COMPILER_NAME)";
+    with_hostid="$ac_hostname (`uname -sm`, $COMPILER_NAME)";
   fi
   AC_SUBST(host, $with_hostid)
   AC_ARG_WITH(tag,
diff --git a/m4/dune_compiler.m4 b/m4/dune_compiler.m4
index f305f8176babfdc76823155c536cb31869662cc3..1dfa469b0f4efa82cd1a8618a052c0ae09874848 100644
--- a/m4/dune_compiler.m4
+++ b/m4/dune_compiler.m4
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ if test "x$compilercheck" != "xyes" ; then
   AC_MSG_WARN([compilercheck is disabled. DANGEROUS!])    
 else
   if $CXX conftest.cc -o conftest.$ac_exeext >&5; then
-	COMPILER_NAME=$(./conftest.$ac_exeext)
+	COMPILER_NAME=`./conftest.$ac_exeext`
     rm -f conftest.$ac_exeext
   else
     AC_MSG_ERROR([Your compiler is not officially supported by dune
diff --git a/m4/f5.m4 b/m4/f5.m4
index 5ce71a796cdc3879f4e855f1a1427e426cbeb999..61e8e869f6dadf9495432c104598b9973bb029d0 100644
--- a/m4/f5.m4
+++ b/m4/f5.m4
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ AC_DEFUN([DUNE_PATH_F5],[
    echo -n "checking for make/arch... "
    if test -x $F5ARCH ; then
      echo "yes"
-     LDFLAGS="$HDF5_LDFLAGS -L$with_f5/lib/$($F5ARCH)"
+     LDFLAGS="$HDF5_LDFLAGS -L$with_f5/lib/`$F5ARCH`"
      F5_LDFLAGS="$LDFLAGS"
      CPPFLAGS="$CPPFLAGS -I$with_f5"
    else