diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index daeff0be..c7678074 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -45,6 +45,10 @@ Fixes:
   (like Mac OS X 10.6), or available in libc but unsupported by the kernel
   (fd.o #77032; rmvsxop, OBATA Akio, Patrick Welche)
 
+• Check for libsystemd from systemd >= 209, falling back to
+  the older separate libraries if not found (Umut Tezduyar Lindskog,
+  Simon McVittie)
+
 • Fix compilation with --enable-stats (fd.o #81043, Gentoo #507232;
   Alban Crequy)
 
@@ -53,6 +57,9 @@ Fixes:
 • Change DBUS_TYPE_G_BYTE_ARRAY reference in dbus-tutorial.xml
   to the correct DBUS_TYPE_G_UCHAR_ARRAY (fd.o #80795, Thomas Haller)
 
+• Improve documentation for running tests on Windows (fd.o #41252,
+  Ralf Habacker)
+
 D-Bus 1.8.6 (2014-06-02)
 ==
 
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index cbaf8742..09eb0406 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -1146,10 +1146,13 @@ dnl systemd detection
 if test x$enable_systemd = xno ; then
     have_systemd=no;
 else
-    PKG_CHECK_MODULES(SYSTEMD,
-        [libsystemd-login >= 32, libsystemd-daemon >= 32, libsystemd-journal >= 32],
-        have_systemd=yes,
-        have_systemd=no)
+    PKG_CHECK_MODULES([SYSTEMD],
+        [libsystemd >= 209],
+        [have_systemd=yes],
+        [PKG_CHECK_MODULES([SYSTEMD],
+            [libsystemd-login >= 32, libsystemd-daemon >= 32, libsystemd-journal >= 32],
+            [have_systemd=yes],
+            [have_systemd=no])])
 fi
 
 if test x$have_systemd = xyes; then