diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 97b286128c1e..89fe23a0825c 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -366,6 +366,7 @@ GENKSYMS	= scripts/genksyms/genksyms
 INSTALLKERNEL  := installkernel
 DEPMOD		= /sbin/depmod
 PERL		= perl
+PYTHON		= python
 CHECK		= sparse
 
 CHECKFLAGS     := -D__linux__ -Dlinux -D__STDC__ -Dunix -D__unix__ \
@@ -416,7 +417,7 @@ KERNELVERSION = $(VERSION)$(if $(PATCHLEVEL),.$(PATCHLEVEL)$(if $(SUBLEVEL),.$(S
 export VERSION PATCHLEVEL SUBLEVEL KERNELRELEASE KERNELVERSION
 export ARCH SRCARCH CONFIG_SHELL HOSTCC HOSTCFLAGS CROSS_COMPILE AS LD CC
 export CPP AR NM STRIP OBJCOPY OBJDUMP
-export MAKE AWK GENKSYMS INSTALLKERNEL PERL UTS_MACHINE
+export MAKE AWK GENKSYMS INSTALLKERNEL PERL PYTHON UTS_MACHINE
 export HOSTCXX HOSTCXXFLAGS LDFLAGS_MODULE CHECK CHECKFLAGS
 
 export KBUILD_CPPFLAGS NOSTDINC_FLAGS LINUXINCLUDE OBJCOPYFLAGS LDFLAGS
diff --git a/arch/ia64/Makefile b/arch/ia64/Makefile
index f37238f45bcd..5441b14994fc 100644
--- a/arch/ia64/Makefile
+++ b/arch/ia64/Makefile
@@ -76,7 +76,7 @@ vmlinux.gz: vmlinux
 	$(Q)$(MAKE) $(build)=$(boot) $@
 
 unwcheck: vmlinux
-	-$(Q)READELF=$(READELF) python $(srctree)/arch/ia64/scripts/unwcheck.py $<
+	-$(Q)READELF=$(READELF) $(PYTHON) $(srctree)/arch/ia64/scripts/unwcheck.py $<
 
 archclean:
 	$(Q)$(MAKE) $(clean)=$(boot)