diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 3d4ddcf2..9256ff41 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -10,6 +10,11 @@
 
 ngIRCd 27
 
+  - autogen.sh: Prefere automake 1.11 over other releases because this is the
+    last release supporting "de-ANSI-fication" using the included ansi2knr tool.
+    And becuase we _want_ to support old K&R platforms, we try hard to use this
+    release of automake when available to generate our build system.
+    Note: This is only relevant for you if you are building from Git sources.
   - Autodetect support for IPv6 by default: Until now, IPv6 support was disabled
     by default, which seems a bit outdated in 2024. Note: You still can pass
     "--enable-ipv6"/"--disable-ipv6" to the ./configure script to forcefully
diff --git a/autogen.sh b/autogen.sh
index bb548227..0cf9a0e3 100755
--- a/autogen.sh
+++ b/autogen.sh
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 #
 # ngIRCd -- The Next Generation IRC Daemon
-# Copyright (c)2001-2015 Alexander Barton (alex@barton.de) and Contributors
+# Copyright (c)2001-2024 Alexander Barton (alex@barton.de) and Contributors
 #
 # This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
 # it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
@@ -60,16 +60,43 @@
 #   and runs it with these arguments: "./configure --prefix=$HOME".
 #
 
+Check_Tool()
+{
+	searchlist="$1"
+	major="$2"
+	minor="$3"
+
+	for name in $searchlist; do
+		$EXIST "${name}${major}${minor}" >/dev/null 2>&1
+		if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
+			echo "${name}${major}${minor}"
+			return 0
+		fi
+		$EXIST "${name}-${major}.${minor}" >/dev/null 2>&1
+		if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
+			echo "${name}-${major}.${minor}"
+			return 0
+		fi
+	done
+	return 1
+}
+
 Search()
 {
-	[ $# -eq 2 ] || exit 1
+	[ $# -lt 2 ] && return 1
+	[ $# -gt 3 ] && return 1
 
 	searchlist="$1"
 	major="$2"
+	minor_pref="$3"
 	minor=99
 
 	[ -n "$PREFIX" ] && searchlist="${PREFIX}/$1 ${PREFIX}/bin/$1 $searchlist"
 
+	if [ -n "$minor_pref" ]; then
+		Check_Tool "$searchlist" "$major" "$minor_pref" && return 0
+	fi
+
 	for name in $searchlist; do
 		$EXIST "${name}" >/dev/null 2>&1
 		if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
@@ -83,18 +110,7 @@ Search()
 	done
 
 	while [ $minor -ge 0 ]; do
-		for name in $searchlist; do
-			$EXIST "${name}${major}${minor}" >/dev/null 2>&1
-			if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
-				echo "${name}${major}${minor}"
-				return 0
-			fi
-			$EXIST "${name}-${major}.${minor}" >/dev/null 2>&1
-			if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
-				echo "${name}-${major}.${minor}"
-				return 0
-			fi
-		done
+		Check_Tool "$searchlist" "$major" "$minor" && return 0
 		minor=$(expr $minor - 1)
 	done
 	return 1
@@ -140,11 +156,11 @@ fi
 # Try to detect the needed tools when no environment variable already
 # specifies one:
 echo "Searching for required tools ..."
-[ -z "$ACLOCAL" ] && ACLOCAL=$(Search aclocal 1)
+[ -z "$ACLOCAL" ] && ACLOCAL=$(Search aclocal 1 11)
 [ "$VERBOSE" = "1" ] && echo " - ACLOCAL=$ACLOCAL"
 [ -z "$AUTOHEADER" ] && AUTOHEADER=$(Search autoheader 2)
 [ "$VERBOSE" = "1" ] && echo " - AUTOHEADER=$AUTOHEADER"
-[ -z "$AUTOMAKE" ] && AUTOMAKE=$(Search automake 1)
+[ -z "$AUTOMAKE" ] && AUTOMAKE=$(Search automake 1 11)
 [ "$VERBOSE" = "1" ] && echo " - AUTOMAKE=$AUTOMAKE"
 [ -z "$AUTOCONF" ] && AUTOCONF=$(Search autoconf 2)
 [ "$VERBOSE" = "1" ] && echo " - AUTOCONF=$AUTOCONF"