--- configure.ac
+++ configure.ac
@@ -30,7 +30,10 @@ AC_SUBST(PACKAGE_RELEASE,1)		dnl  keep A
 
 AC_CONFIG_HEADER([config.h])
 AC_CONFIG_SRCDIR([backend/epkowa.c])
+dnl Detect old libtool
+m4_ifndef([LT_OUTPUT], [
 AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS([libltdl])
+])
 
 AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE([gnu 1.7])
 
@@ -196,10 +199,10 @@ dnl  The somewhat obscure LT_AC_PROG_SED
 dnl  SED environment variable gets set before it's used by the libtool
 dnl  machinery.  This works around buggy libtool versions.
 LT_AC_PROG_SED
-AC_LIB_LTDL
 AC_LIBLTDL_CONVENIENCE
 AC_LIBTOOL_DLOPEN
 AC_PROG_LIBTOOL
+AC_LIB_LTDL
 AC_SUBST(LTDLINCL)
 AC_SUBST(LIBLTDL)
 
--- lib/imgstream.cc
+++ lib/imgstream.cc
@@ -211,6 +211,17 @@ int selector (const dirent *);
 imgstream::dl_handle
 imgstream::find_dlopen (const char *libname)
 {
+// forward compatibility
+#ifndef LTDL_SHLIB_EXT
+#define LTDL_SHLIB_EXT LT_MODULE_EXT
+#endif
+#ifndef LTDL_SHLIBPATH_VAR
+#define LTDL_SHLIBPATH_VAR LT_MODULE_PATH_VAR
+#endif
+#ifndef LTDL_SYSSEARCHPATH
+#define LTDL_SYSSEARCHPATH LT_DLSEARCH_PATH 
+#endif
+
   using std::bad_alloc;
 
   dl_handle result = NULL;