diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index c2dd6cc49..db1f1212b 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
+2007-06-19  Emmanuele Bassi  <ebassi@openedhand.com>
+
+	* autogen.sh: autoreconf needs a README.
+
 2007-06-19  Matthew Allum  <mallum@openedhand.com>
 
 	* TODO:
diff --git a/autogen.sh b/autogen.sh
index aecfb84ce..55fcdd196 100755
--- a/autogen.sh
+++ b/autogen.sh
@@ -1,4 +1,9 @@
 #! /bin/sh
 gtkdocize || exit 1
+
+# back in the stupidity of autoreconf
+touch README
 autoreconf -v --install || exit 1
+rm -f README
+
 ./configure --enable-maintainer-mode "$@"