diff --git a/Tools/ardupilotwaf/boards.py b/Tools/ardupilotwaf/boards.py
index 8cb702ddcf..c32de12e3f 100644
--- a/Tools/ardupilotwaf/boards.py
+++ b/Tools/ardupilotwaf/boards.py
@@ -794,6 +794,8 @@ class sitl(Board):
 
         if Utils.unversioned_sys_platform() == 'cygwin':
             env.CXXFLAGS += ['-DCYGWIN_BUILD']
+            # can't do symbol checking on cygwin due to exception usage in system libraries
+            env.CHECK_SYMBOLS = False
 
         if 'clang++' in cfg.env.COMPILER_CXX:
             print("Disabling SLP for clang++")
diff --git a/Tools/ardupilotwaf/toolchain.py b/Tools/ardupilotwaf/toolchain.py
index 9347876c1f..a01bbedc04 100644
--- a/Tools/ardupilotwaf/toolchain.py
+++ b/Tools/ardupilotwaf/toolchain.py
@@ -150,7 +150,10 @@ def configure(cfg):
         cfg.find_program('%s-ar' % cfg.env.TOOLCHAIN, var='AR', quiet=True)
     cfg.load('compiler_cxx compiler_c')
 
-    cfg.find_program('%s-nm' % cfg.env.TOOLCHAIN, var='NM')
+    if sys.platform.startswith("cygwin"):
+        cfg.find_program('nm', var='NM')
+    else:
+        cfg.find_program('%s-nm' % cfg.env.TOOLCHAIN, var='NM')
 
     if not cfg.options.disable_gccdeps:
         cfg.load('gccdeps')