diff --git a/SPECS/openvswitch2.17.spec b/SPECS/openvswitch2.17.spec
index cb8a02b..da9a73b 100644
--- a/SPECS/openvswitch2.17.spec
+++ b/SPECS/openvswitch2.17.spec
@@ -27,6 +27,12 @@
 %define _rundir /run
 %endif
 
+# FIXME remove when fast-datapath-rhel-8 buildroot is updated to new RHEL 8 zstream
+# RHEL-8.0 doesn't define _smp_build_ncpus, but it uses the old _smp_mflags
+%if 0%{!?_smp_build_ncpus:1}
+%define _smp_build_ncpus %(c=%_smp_mflags; echo ${c:2})
+%endif
+
 # FIXME Test "STP - flush the fdb and mdb when topology changed" fails on s390x
 # FIXME 2 tests fails on ppc64le. They will be hopefully fixed before official 2.11
 %ifarch %{ix86} x86_64 aarch64
@@ -57,7 +63,7 @@ Summary: Open vSwitch
 Group: System Environment/Daemons daemon/database/utilities
 URL: http://www.openvswitch.org/
 Version: 2.17.0
-Release: 77%{?dist}
+Release: 78%{?dist}
 
 # Nearly all of openvswitch is ASL 2.0.  The bugtool is LGPLv2+, and the
 # lib/sflow*.[ch] files are SISSL
@@ -743,6 +749,20 @@ exit 0
 %endif
 
 %changelog
+* Tue Feb 21 2023 Timothy Redaelli <tredaelli@redhat.com> - 2.17.0-78
+- redhat: add a workaround for meson [RH git: 39c6e2a48b]
+    Currently, fast-datapath-rhel-8 is aligned to RHEL 8.0, with an
+    exception to use a newer meson version.
+    
+    The problem is that, in the meanwhile, _smp_build_ncpus macros was added
+    (and meson macros uses it).
+    
+    This commit just define, if needed, _smp_build_ncpus by stripping the first 2
+    characters (-j) from _smp_mflags that was present in RHEL 8.0.
+    
+    Signed-off-by: Timothy Redaelli <tredaelli@redhat.com>
+
+
 * Mon Feb 13 2023 Open vSwitch CI <ovs-ci@redhat.com> - 2.17.0-77
 - Merging upstream branch-2.17 [RH git: 5ba5bb6bf9]
     Commit list: