diff --git a/autogen.sh b/autogen.sh
index 8c2d7fa2..751b4f55 100755
--- a/autogen.sh
+++ b/autogen.sh
@@ -14,12 +14,33 @@
 # ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF
 # OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
 
+cd `dirname "$0"`
+
 if [ "$LIBTOOLIZE" = "" ] && [ "`uname`" = "Darwin" ]; then
   LIBTOOLIZE=glibtoolize
 fi
 
+ACLOCAL=${ACLOCAL:-aclocal}
+AUTOCONF=${AUTOCONF:-autoconf}
+AUTOMAKE=${AUTOMAKE:-automake}
+LIBTOOLIZE=${LIBTOOLIZE:-libtoolize}
+
+automake_version=`"$AUTOMAKE" --version | head -n 1 | sed 's/[^.0-9]//g'`
+automake_version_major=`echo "$automake_version" | cut -d. -f1`
+automake_version_minor=`echo "$automake_version" | cut -d. -f2`
+
+UV_EXTRA_AUTOMAKE_FLAGS=
+if test "$automake_version_major" -gt 1 || \
+   test "$automake_version_major" -eq 1 && \
+   test "$automake_version_minor" -gt 11; then
+  # serial-tests is available in v0.12 and newer.
+  UV_EXTRA_AUTOMAKE_FLAGS="$UV_EXTRA_AUTOMAKE_FLAGS serial-tests"
+fi
+echo "m4_define([UV_EXTRA_AUTOMAKE_FLAGS], [$UV_EXTRA_AUTOMAKE_FLAGS])" \
+    > m4/libuv-extra-automake-flags.m4
+
 set -ex
-${LIBTOOLIZE:-libtoolize}
-${ACLOCAL:-aclocal -I m4}
-${AUTOCONF:-autoconf}
-${AUTOMAKE:-automake} --add-missing
+"$LIBTOOLIZE"
+"$ACLOCAL" -I m4
+"$AUTOCONF"
+"$AUTOMAKE" --add-missing --copy
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 6ec673e5..d9760a32 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -14,12 +14,9 @@
 
 AC_PREREQ(2.57)
 AC_INIT([libuv], [0.11.5], [https://github.com/joyent/libuv/issues])
-# Use AM_PROG_AR as an ad-hoc version check to find out if it's safe
-# to use the serial-tests directive. Both were added in automake v0.12.
-AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE(m4_ifdef([AM_PROG_AR],
-                          [-Wall -Werror foreign subdir-objects serial-tests],
-                          [-Wall -Werror foreign subdir-objects]))
 AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR([m4])
+m4_include([m4/libuv-extra-automake-flags.m4])
+AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE([-Wall -Werror foreign subdir-objects] UV_EXTRA_AUTOMAKE_FLAGS)
 AC_CANONICAL_HOST
 AC_ENABLE_SHARED
 AC_ENABLE_STATIC