diff --git a/wscript b/wscript
index 1bf6a0a8fb..3d492042be 100644
--- a/wscript
+++ b/wscript
@@ -454,7 +454,17 @@ def configure(conf):
 
 	if Options.options.boost_sp_debug:
 		conf.env.append_value('CXXFLAGS', '-DBOOST_SP_ENABLE_DEBUG_HOOKS')
-	
+
+	autowaf.check_header(conf, 'boost/signals2.hpp')
+
+	conf.check_cc(fragment = "#include <boost/version.hpp>\nint main(void) { return (BOOST_VERSION >= 104000 ? 0 : 1); }\n",
+		      execute = "1",
+		      mandatory = True,
+		      define_name = 'boost_old_enough',
+		      msg = 'Checking for boost library >= 1.40',
+		      okmsg = 'ok',
+		      errmsg = 'too old\nPlease install boost version 1.40 or higher.')
+
 	autowaf.check_pkg(conf, 'glib-2.0', uselib_store='GLIB', atleast_version='2.2')
 	autowaf.check_pkg(conf, 'gthread-2.0', uselib_store='GTHREAD', atleast_version='2.2')
 	autowaf.check_pkg(conf, 'glibmm-2.4', uselib_store='GLIBMM', atleast_version='2.14.0')