diff --git a/src/gui/configure.cmake b/src/gui/configure.cmake
index 354be5bd44d..b11e06bdb4f 100644
--- a/src/gui/configure.cmake
+++ b/src/gui/configure.cmake
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ set_package_properties(Libdrm PROPERTIES TYPE OPTIONAL)
 find_package(EGL)
 set_package_properties(EGL PROPERTIES TYPE OPTIONAL)
 find_package(Freetype)
-set_package_properties(Freetype PROPERTIES TYPE OPTIONAL)
+set_package_properties(Freetype PROPERTIES TYPE REQUIRED)
 find_package(Fontconfig)
 set_package_properties(Fontconfig PROPERTIES TYPE OPTIONAL)
 find_package(gbm)
diff --git a/util/cmake/configurejson2cmake.py b/util/cmake/configurejson2cmake.py
index 58ab106555a..fe853bb910d 100755
--- a/util/cmake/configurejson2cmake.py
+++ b/util/cmake/configurejson2cmake.py
@@ -54,7 +54,7 @@ def map_library(lib: str) -> Union[str, LibraryMapping, List[str]]:
        'drm': 'Libdrm',
        'egl': 'EGL',
        'fontconfig': LibraryMapping(package='Fontconfig', resultVariable="FONTCONFIG"),
-       'freetype': 'Freetype',
+       'freetype': ['Freetype', 'REQUIRED'],
        'gbm': 'gbm',
        'glib': 'GLIB2',
        'gnu_iconv': None,