diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 89c2dbc8c..7bc5305ad 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+2008-09-26  Thomas Thurman  <tthurman@gnome.org>
+
+        * autogen.sh: not all versions of /bin/sh can handle this script,
+          so specify one.  Also update the error message because we don't
+          use CVS these days.
+
 2008-09-20  Thomas Thurman  <tthurman@gnome.org>
 
         * po/POTFILES.in: fix name of window-bindings.h
diff --git a/autogen.sh b/autogen.sh
index b6b4cc76f..1159af273 100755
--- a/autogen.sh
+++ b/autogen.sh
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-#!/bin/sh
+#!/bin/bash
 # Run this to generate all the initial makefiles, etc.
 
 srcdir=`dirname $0`
@@ -15,7 +15,8 @@ REQUIRED_AUTOMAKE_VERSION=1.10
 }
 
 which gnome-autogen.sh || {
-    echo "You need to install gnome-common from the GNOME CVS"
+    echo "You need to install gnome-common from GNOME Subversion (or from"
+    echo "your distribution's package manager)."
     exit 1
 }
 USE_GNOME2_MACROS=1 USE_COMMON_DOC_BUILD=yes . gnome-autogen.sh