diff --git a/autogen.sh b/autogen.sh
index 24137bde..f121ed9b 100755
--- a/autogen.sh
+++ b/autogen.sh
@@ -41,9 +41,23 @@ test -f entities.c || {
 	exit 1
 }
 
-if test -z "$NOCONFIGURE" && test -z "$*"; then
-	echo "I am going to run ./configure with no arguments - if you wish "
+EXTRA_ARGS=
+if test "x$1" = "x--system"; then
+    shift
+    prefix=/usr
+    libdir=$prefix/lib
+    sysconfdir=/etc
+    localstatedir=/var
+    if [ -d /usr/lib64 ]; then
+      libdir=$prefix/lib64
+    fi
+    EXTRA_ARGS="--prefix=$prefix --sysconfdir=$sysconfdir --localstatedir=$localstatedir --libdir=$libdir"
+    echo "Running ./configure with $EXTRA_ARGS $@"
+else
+    if test -z "$NOCONFIGURE" && test -z "$*"; then
+        echo "I am going to run ./configure with no arguments - if you wish "
         echo "to pass any to it, please specify them on the $0 command line."
+    fi
 fi
 
 if [ ! -d $srcdir/m4 ]; then
@@ -51,10 +65,6 @@ if [ ! -d $srcdir/m4 ]; then
 fi
 
 # Replaced by autoreconf below
-#libtoolize --copy --force
-#aclocal $ACLOCAL_FLAGS
-#automake --force-missing --add-missing --copy --foreign
-#autoconf
 autoreconf -if
 
 cd $THEDIR
@@ -65,8 +75,7 @@ if test x$OBJ_DIR != x; then
 fi
 
 if test -z "$NOCONFIGURE"; then
-    $srcdir/configure "$@"
-
-    echo 
-    echo "Now type 'make' to compile libxml."
+    $srcdir/configure $EXTRA_ARGS "$@"
+    echo
+    echo "Now type 'make' to compile libvirt."
 fi