diff --git a/tools/perf/config/Makefile b/tools/perf/config/Makefile
index e05d8f99424d..75d4c237b03d 100644
--- a/tools/perf/config/Makefile
+++ b/tools/perf/config/Makefile
@@ -121,10 +121,16 @@ ifdef PARSER_DEBUG
 endif
 
 ifndef NO_LIBPYTHON
-  override PYTHON := \
-    $(call get-executable-or-default,PYTHON,python)
+  # Try different combinations to accommodate systems that only have
+  # python[2][-config] in weird combinations but always preferring
+  # python2 and python2-config as per pep-0394. If we catch a
+  # python[-config] in version 3, the version check will kill it.
+  PYTHON2 := $(if $(call get-executable,python2),python2,python)
+  override PYTHON := $(call get-executable-or-default,PYTHON,$(PYTHON2))
+  PYTHON2_CONFIG := \
+    $(if $(call get-executable,$(PYTHON)-config),$(PYTHON)-config,python-config)
   override PYTHON_CONFIG := \
-    $(call get-executable-or-default,PYTHON_CONFIG,$(PYTHON)-config)
+    $(call get-executable-or-default,PYTHON_CONFIG,$(PYTHON2_CONFIG))
 
   PYTHON_CONFIG_SQ := $(call shell-sq,$(PYTHON_CONFIG))