diff --git a/build/modmake.rulesam b/build/modmake.rulesam
index aa36997bd8..386fd41e06 100644
--- a/build/modmake.rulesam
+++ b/build/modmake.rulesam
@@ -2,6 +2,9 @@ AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS = foreign subdir-objects
 AM_CFLAGS   = $(SWITCH_AM_CFLAGS) $(SWITCH_ANSI_CFLAGS)
 AM_CPPFLAGS = $(SWITCH_AM_CXXFLAGS)
 AM_LDFLAGS  = $(SWITCH_AM_LDFLAGS)
+DEFAULT_VARS = CFLAGS="$(CFLAGS)" CPPFLAGS="$(CXXFLAGS)" LDFLAGS="$(LDFLAGS)" CC="$(CC)" CXX="$(CXX)"
+DEFAULT_ARGS = --build=$(build) --host=$(host) --target=$(target) --prefix="$(prefix)" --exec_prefix="$(exec_prefix)" --libdir="$(libdir)" --disable-shared --with-pic
+
 #we should set all these vars from configure, no reason to have these in each Makefile.am
 LIBTOOL = echo "`link=\`echo $@|grep .la;echo $@|grep .so;echo $@|grep .dll\`;if test -n "$$link"; then echo Creating $@;fi`";`if test -z "$(VERBOSE)" ; \
 then echo $(SHELL) $(switch_builddir)/quiet_libtool ;else echo $(SHELL) $(switch_builddir)/libtool;  fi`