diff --git a/configure.in b/configure.in
index e75683697..d3e0a379e 100644
--- a/configure.in
+++ b/configure.in
@@ -1855,6 +1855,15 @@ CheckAltivec()
     AC_MSG_RESULT($have_gcc_altivec)
 }
 
+dnl Check for a valid linux/version.h
+CheckLinuxVersion()
+{
+    AC_CHECK_HEADER(linux/version.h, have_linux_version_h=yes)
+    if test x$have_linux_version_h = xyes; then
+        CFLAGS="$CFLAGS -DHAVE_LINUX_VERSION_H"
+    fi
+}
+
 case "$target" in
     *-*-linux*|*-*-gnu*|*-*-k*bsd*-gnu)
         case "$target" in
@@ -1889,6 +1898,8 @@ case "$target" in
         CheckPTHREAD
         CheckSIGACTION
         CheckAltivec
+        CheckLinuxVersion
+
         # Set up files for the main() stub
         if test "x$video_qtopia" = "xyes"; then
           SDL_CFLAGS="$SDL_CFLAGS -Dmain=SDL_main"
diff --git a/src/cdrom/linux/SDL_syscdrom.c b/src/cdrom/linux/SDL_syscdrom.c
index 529909dd3..2f18fa2a6 100644
--- a/src/cdrom/linux/SDL_syscdrom.c
+++ b/src/cdrom/linux/SDL_syscdrom.c
@@ -37,6 +37,7 @@ static char rcsid =
 #include <errno.h>
 #include <unistd.h>
 #ifdef __linux__
+#ifdef HAVE_LINUX_VERSION_H
 /* linux 2.6.9 workaround */
 #include <linux/version.h>
 #if LINUX_VERSION_CODE == KERNEL_VERSION(2,6,9)
@@ -48,6 +49,7 @@ static char rcsid =
 #define __be32 __u32
 #define __be16 __u16
 #endif /* linux 2.6.9 workaround */
+#endif /* HAVE_LINUX_VERSION_H */
 #include <linux/cdrom.h>
 #endif
 #ifdef __SVR4