diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index a2acef3c11..bfd8ba3a96 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -321,14 +321,10 @@ HELPERS-y =
 
 HELPERS-$(call land,$(CONFIG_SOFTMMU),$(CONFIG_LINUX)) = qemu-bridge-helper$(EXESUF)
 
-ifdef CONFIG_LINUX
-ifdef CONFIG_VIRGL
-ifdef CONFIG_GBM
+ifeq ($(CONFIG_LINUX)$(CONFIG_VIRGL)$(CONFIG_GBM)$(CONFIG_TOOLS),yyyy)
 HELPERS-y += vhost-user-gpu$(EXESUF)
 vhost-user-json-y += contrib/vhost-user-gpu/50-qemu-gpu.json
 endif
-endif
-endif
 
 # Sphinx does not allow building manuals into the same directory as
 # the source files, so if we're doing an in-tree QEMU build we must