diff --git a/configure.in b/configure.in
index 1a663406d91..7892a05bcf2 100644
--- a/configure.in
+++ b/configure.in
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ dnl  along with GNU Emacs; see the file COPYING.  If not, write to the
 dnl  Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330,
 dnl  Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
 
-AC_PREREQ(2.53)dnl
+AC_PREREQ(2.54)dnl
 AC_INIT(src/lisp.h)
 AC_CONFIG_HEADER(src/config.h:src/config.in)
 
@@ -1345,6 +1345,8 @@ else
   CPPFLAGS="$c_switch_system $c_switch_machine $CPPFLAGS"
 fi
 
+AC_CONFIG_LIBOBJ_DIR(src)
+
 dnl Do this early because it can frob feature test macros for Unix-98 &c.
 AC_SYS_LARGEFILE