diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 72fa57a1..f50e6353 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -14,7 +14,11 @@
 
 AC_PREREQ(2.57)
 AC_INIT([libuv], [0.11.5], [https://github.com/joyent/libuv/issues])
-AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE([foreign serial-tests subdir-objects -Wall -Werror])
+# Use AM_SILENT_RULES as an ad-hoc version check to find out if it's safe
+# to use the serial-tests directive. Both were added in automake v0.11.
+AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE(m4_ifdef([AM_SILENT_RULES],
+                          [-Wall -Werror foreign subdir-objects serial-tests],
+                          [-Wall -Werror foreign subdir-objects]))
 AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR([m4])
 AC_CANONICAL_HOST
 AC_ENABLE_SHARED