Automake version check is only done in autogen.sh and not in configure.

autogen.sh

@@ -3,6 +3,14 @@
 OSTYPE=`uname -s`
 MACHINE=`uname -m`
 AUTO_MAKE_VERSION=`automake --version | head -1 | awk '{print $4}' | sed -e 's/\.\([0-9]*\).*/\1/'`
+if test $AUTO_MAKE_VERSION -lt 15; then
+    echo ""
+    echo "You need to upgrade to automake version 1.5 or greater."
+    echo "Most distributions have packages available to install or you can"
+    echo "find the source for the most recent version at"
+    echo "ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/automake"
+    exit 1
+fi
 
 echo "Host info: $OSTYPE $MACHINE"
 echo -n " automake: `automake --version | head -1 | awk '{print $4}'`"