diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 248d1244..b7686b14 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -31,6 +31,7 @@ option(WITH_TESTS "build with tests" OFF)
 option(WITH_BENCHMARKS "build with benchmarks" OFF)
 option(WITH_FUZZ "build with fuzzing binaries" OFF)
 option(ENABLE_PERFMON "enable performance monitor in all tools" ON)
+option(ENABLE_FLAC "build with FLAC support" ON)
 if(WIN32)
   set(PREFER_SYSTEM_LIBFMT ON)
   set(PREFER_SYSTEM_ZSTD ON)
@@ -223,7 +224,9 @@ if(PKG_CONFIG_FOUND)
   pkg_check_modules(LIBBROTLIENC IMPORTED_TARGET libbrotlienc>=1.0.9)
   pkg_check_modules(LIBARCHIVE IMPORTED_TARGET libarchive>=3.6.0)
   # pkg_check_modules(LIBMAGIC IMPORTED_TARGET libmagic>=5.38)
-  pkg_check_modules(FLAC IMPORTED_TARGET flac++>=1.4.2)
+  if(ENABLE_FLAC)
+    pkg_check_modules(FLAC IMPORTED_TARGET flac++>=1.4.2)
+  endif()
   pkg_check_modules(ZSTD IMPORTED_TARGET libzstd>=1.5.2)
   pkg_check_modules(XXHASH IMPORTED_TARGET libxxhash>=0.8.1)
 endif()
diff --git a/src/mkdwarfs_main.cpp b/src/mkdwarfs_main.cpp
index c58f2ed5..42db6273 100644
--- a/src/mkdwarfs_main.cpp
+++ b/src/mkdwarfs_main.cpp
@@ -251,7 +251,11 @@ const std::unordered_map<std::string, std::vector<std::string>>
         // clang-format off
         {"--order",       {"pcmaudio/waveform::revpath"}},
         {"--window-size", {"pcmaudio/waveform::0"}},
+#ifdef DWARFS_HAVE_FLAC
         {"--compression", {"pcmaudio/waveform::flac:level=3"}},
+#else
+        {"--compression", {"pcmaudio/waveform::zstd:level=3"}},
+#endif
         // clang-format on
     };
 
@@ -260,7 +264,11 @@ const std::unordered_map<std::string, std::vector<std::string>>
         // clang-format off
         {"--order",       {"pcmaudio/waveform::revpath"}},
         {"--window-size", {"pcmaudio/waveform::20"}},
+#ifdef DWARFS_HAVE_FLAC
         {"--compression", {"pcmaudio/waveform::flac:level=5"}},
+#else
+        {"--compression", {"pcmaudio/waveform::zstd:level=5"}},
+#endif
         // clang-format on
     };
 
@@ -268,7 +276,11 @@ const std::unordered_map<std::string, std::vector<std::string>>
     categorize_defaults_slow{
         // clang-format off
         {"--window-size", {"pcmaudio/waveform::16"}},
+#ifdef DWARFS_HAVE_FLAC
         {"--compression", {"pcmaudio/waveform::flac:level=8"}},
+#else
+        {"--compression", {"pcmaudio/waveform::zstd:level=8"}},
+#endif
         // clang-format on
     };
 
diff --git a/test/catdata.dwarfs b/test/catdata.dwarfs
index c8582638..c63c228c 100644
Binary files a/test/catdata.dwarfs and b/test/catdata.dwarfs differ
diff --git a/test/tools_test.cpp b/test/tools_test.cpp
index 2daa44c3..207ca554 100644
--- a/test/tools_test.cpp
+++ b/test/tools_test.cpp
@@ -1249,7 +1249,12 @@ TEST_P(tools_test, categorize) {
       "--recompress=block",
       "--recompress-categories=pcmaudio/waveform",
       "-C",
-      "pcmaudio/waveform::flac:level=8"};
+#ifdef DWARFS_HAVE_FLAC
+      "pcmaudio/waveform::flac:level=8"
+#else
+      "pcmaudio/waveform::zstd:level=19"
+#endif
+  };
 
   ASSERT_TRUE(subprocess::check_run(*mkdwarfs_test_bin, mkdwarfs_tool_arg,
                                     mkdwarfs_args_recompress));