diff --git a/autogen.sh b/autogen.sh
index ec90785db..61c3b46f5 100755
--- a/autogen.sh
+++ b/autogen.sh
@@ -1,10 +1,10 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 # Run this to generate all the initial makefiles, etc.
 
-srcdir=`dirname $0`
-test -z "$srcdir" && srcdir=.
+test -n "$srcdir" || srcdir=`dirname "$0"`
+test -n "$srcdir" || srcdir=.
 
-ORIGDIR=`pwd`
+olddir=`pwd`
 
 cd $srcdir
 PROJECT=Clutter
@@ -20,26 +20,17 @@ test $TEST_TYPE $FILE || {
 # https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=661128
 touch -t 200001010000 po/clutter-1.0.pot
 
-if automake-1.11 --version < /dev/null > /dev/null 2>&1 ; then
-    AUTOMAKE=automake-1.11
-    ACLOCAL=aclocal-1.11
-    export AUTOMAKE ACLOCAL
-else
-        echo
-        echo "You must have automake 1.11.x installed to compile $PROJECT
-ECT."
-        echo "Install the appropriate package for your distribution,"
-        echo "or get the source tarball at http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/automake/"
+GTKDOCIZE=`which gtkdocize`
+if test -z $GTKDOCIZE; then
+        echo "*** No GTK-Doc found, please install it ***"
         exit 1
 fi
 
-(gtkdocize --version) < /dev/null > /dev/null 2>&1 || {
-	echo
-	echo "You must have gtk-doc installed to compile $PROJECT."
-	echo "Install the appropriate package for your distribution,"
-	echo "or get the source tarball at http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/sources/gtk-doc/"
+AUTORECONF=`which autoreconf`
+if test -z $AUTORECONF; then
+        echo "*** No autoreconf found, please install it ***"
         exit 1
-}
+fi
 
 # NOCONFIGURE is used by gnome-common
 if test -z "$NOCONFIGURE"; then
@@ -49,29 +40,10 @@ if test -z "$NOCONFIGURE"; then
         fi
 fi
 
-if test -z "$ACLOCAL_FLAGS"; then
-        acdir=`$ACLOCAL --print-ac-dir`
-        m4list="glib-2.0.m4"
-        for file in $m4list; do
-                if [ ! -f "$acdir/$file" ]; then
-                        echo "WARNING: aclocal's directory is $acdir, but..."
-                        echo "         no file $acdir/$file"
-                        echo "         You may see fatal macro warnings below."
-                        echo "         If these files are installed in /some/dir, set the ACLOCAL_FLAGS "
-                        echo "         environment variable to \"-I /some/dir\", or install"
-                        echo "         $acdir/$file."
-                        echo ""
-                fi
-        done
-fi
-
 rm -rf autom4te.cache
 
 gtkdocize || exit $?
-autoreconf -vfi || exit $?
-cd $ORIGDIR || exit $?
+autoreconf --force --install --verbose || exit $?
 
-if test -z "$NOCONFIGURE"; then
-        $srcdir/configure $AUTOGEN_CONFIGURE_ARGS "$@" || exit $?
-        echo "Now type 'make' to compile $PROJECT."
-fi
+cd "$olddir"
+test -n "$NOCONFIGURE" || "$srcdir/configure" "$@"