diff --git a/wscript b/wscript
index 3d492042be..7644476cc7 100644
--- a/wscript
+++ b/wscript
@@ -457,13 +457,12 @@ def configure(conf):
 
 	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",
+	conf.check_cc(fragment = "#include <boost/version.hpp>\nint main(void) { return (BOOST_VERSION >= 103900 ? 0 : 1); }\n",
 		      execute = "1",
 		      mandatory = True,
-		      define_name = 'boost_old_enough',
-		      msg = 'Checking for boost library >= 1.40',
+		      msg = 'Checking for boost library >= 1.39',
 		      okmsg = 'ok',
-		      errmsg = 'too old\nPlease install boost version 1.40 or higher.')
+		      errmsg = 'too old\nPlease install boost version 1.39 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')