diff --git a/linux/linux-tool-perf.mk b/linux/linux-tool-perf.mk
index 1070a1c098..f9b295fb13 100644
--- a/linux/linux-tool-perf.mk
+++ b/linux/linux-tool-perf.mk
@@ -24,8 +24,7 @@ PERF_MAKE_FLAGS = \
 	NO_LIBPYTHON=1 \
 	DESTDIR=$(TARGET_DIR) \
 	prefix=/usr \
-	WERROR=0 \
-	ASCIIDOC=
+	WERROR=0
 
 # We need to pass an argument to ld for setting the endianness when
 # building it for MIPS architecture, otherwise the default one will
@@ -68,6 +67,19 @@ else
 PERF_MAKE_FLAGS += NO_LIBELF=1 NO_DWARF=1
 endif
 
+# We really do not want to build the perf documentation, because it
+# has stringent requirement on the documentation generation tools,
+# like xmlto and asciidoc), which may be lagging behind on some
+# distributions.
+# We name it 'GNUmakefile' so that GNU make will use it instead of
+# the existing 'Makefile'.
+define PERF_DISABLE_DOCUMENTATION
+	if [ -f $(@D)/tools/perf/Documentation/Makefile ]; then \
+		printf "%%:\n\t@:\n" >$(@D)/tools/perf/Documentation/GNUmakefile; \
+	fi
+endef
+LINUX_POST_PATCH_HOOKS += PERF_DISABLE_DOCUMENTATION
+
 # O must be redefined here to overwrite the one used by Buildroot for
 # out of tree build. We build perf in $(@D)/tools/perf/ and not just
 # $(@D) so that it isn't built in the root directory of the kernel