diff --git a/octave-iso2mesh.spec b/octave-iso2mesh.spec
index 3450d04..700d2df 100644
--- a/octave-iso2mesh.spec
+++ b/octave-iso2mesh.spec
@@ -288,7 +288,9 @@ mv img2mesh.fig inst/
 %build
 %set_build_flags
 pushd tools
-%make_build
+# can't use make_build macro below because parallel make with CGAL exhausts
+# vm's memory and crash the building process, use sequential make instead
+make
 popd
 pushd bin
 ln -s tetgen1.5 tetgen