diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index fdf3954a2..967150b27 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -1491,7 +1491,21 @@ if(NOT MATIO_FOUND)
             set(MATIO_LIBRARIES ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/matio/lib/${CMAKE_FIND_LIBRARY_PREFIXES}matio${CMAKE_STATIC_LIBRARY_SUFFIX} ${HDF5_LIBRARIES} ${ZLIB_LIBRARIES} )
             set(MATIO_INCLUDE_DIRS ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/matio/include )
             set(MATIO_LOCAL true)
+        else(HDF5_FOUND)
+            message(STATUS " The hdf5 library has not been found in your system.")
+            message(STATUS " Please try to install it by doing:")
+            if(OS_IS_MACOSX)
+                message(STATUS "  $ sudo port install hdf5")
+                message(STATUS " or")
+                message(STATUS "  $ brew install hdf5")
+            endif(OS_IS_MACOSX)
+            if(OS_IS_LINUX)
+                message(STATUS "  $ sudo apt-get install libhdf5-dev")
+            endif(OS_IS_LINUX)
+            message(FATAL_ERROR "*** The hdf5 library is required to build gnss-sdr")
         endif(HDF5_FOUND)
+    else(ZLIB_FOUND)
+        message(FATAL_ERROR "*** The zlib library is required to build gnss-sdr")
     endif(ZLIB_FOUND)
 endif(NOT MATIO_FOUND)
 
diff --git a/src/tests/CMakeLists.txt b/src/tests/CMakeLists.txt
index 30b20eadb..e817b6ca4 100644
--- a/src/tests/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/src/tests/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -163,6 +163,8 @@ endif(GNUPLOT_FOUND)
 
 if(MATIO_FOUND OR MATIO_LOCAL)
     add_definitions(-DMATIO_TEST=1)
+    set(GNSS_SDR_TEST_OPTIONAL_LIBS "${GNSS_SDR_TEST_OPTIONAL_LIBS};${MATIO_LIBRARIES}")
+    set(GNSS_SDR_TEST_OPTIONAL_HEADERS "${GNSS_SDR_TEST_OPTIONAL_HEADERS};${MATIO_INCLUDE_DIRS}")
 endif(MATIO_FOUND OR MATIO_LOCAL)
 
 ################################################################################
@@ -323,8 +325,6 @@ include_directories(
      ${VOLK_INCLUDE_DIRS}
      ${VOLK_GNSSSDR_INCLUDE_DIRS}
      ${GNSS_SDR_TEST_OPTIONAL_HEADERS}
-     ${GNSS_SDR_TEST_OPTIONAL_HEADERS}
-     ${MATIO_INCLUDE_DIRS}
 )
 
 
@@ -359,7 +359,6 @@ if(ENABLE_UNIT_TESTING)
                                 signal_processing_testing_lib
                                 ${VOLK_GNSSSDR_LIBRARIES}
                                 ${GNSS_SDR_TEST_OPTIONAL_LIBS}
-                                ${MATIO_LIBRARIES}
     )
     if(NOT ${GTEST_DIR_LOCAL})
         add_dependencies(run_tests gtest-${GNSSSDR_GTEST_LOCAL_VERSION})