diff --git a/Makefile.am b/Makefile.am
index 936d64916..0458998b7 100644
--- a/Makefile.am
+++ b/Makefile.am
@@ -5,8 +5,6 @@ if CAIRO_HAS_PNG_FUNCTIONS
 SUBDIRS += boilerplate test perf
 endif
 
-ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS=-I m4
-
 
 .PHONY: doc test retest recheck check-valgrind
 # We have some generated header files, so we really need to build the
diff --git a/configure.in b/configure.in
index 68a9d6572..94aaf467b 100644
--- a/configure.in
+++ b/configure.in
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ AC_INIT([cairo],
       [http://bugs.freedesktop.org/enter_bug.cgi?product=cairo])
 AC_CONFIG_SRCDIR(src/cairo.h)
 AC_CONFIG_HEADERS(config.h)
-AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR([m4])
+dnl AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR([m4])
 
 dnl automake 1.8 requires autoconf 2.58
 dnl automake 1.7 requires autoconf 2.54