diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 4993e39..d8fc5f8 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
+2005-02-11 Gonzalo Paniagua Javier <gonzalo@ximian.com>
+
+	* configure.in: detect if gmcs actually works. Patch by Robert Jordan.
+
 2005-02-08  Raja R Harinath  <rharinath@novell.com>
 
 	* test/2.0/treeview/Makefile.am (install-data-hook,uninstall-hook): 
diff --git a/configure.in b/configure.in
index 2ac312c..2da4caf 100644
--- a/configure.in
+++ b/configure.in
@@ -19,6 +19,25 @@ if test "x$MCS" = "xno" ; then
 	MCS=$CSC
 fi
 
+if test "x$GMCS" != "xno" ; then
+	AC_MSG_CHECKING([whether gmcs is actually able to compile...])
+
+	tmpin=`mktemp`
+	tmpout=`mktemp`
+
+	echo "class Foo { public static void Main() {} }" > $tmpin
+
+	if [ gmcs -r:System.Web.dll -out:$tmpout $tmpin > /dev/null 2>&1 ]
+	then
+		AC_MSG_RESULT(yes)
+	else
+		GMCS=no
+		AC_MSG_RESULT(no)
+	fi
+
+	rm -f $tmpin $tmpout
+fi
+
 case "$host" in
 	*-*-mingw*|*-*-cygwin*)
 	platform_win32=yes