diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index bce1a457..c976a114 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -22,6 +22,8 @@ AC_SUBST(WARN_CFLAGS)
 LT_PREREQ([2.2.4])
 LT_INIT([disable-static])
 
+AC_CHECK_HEADER([attr/xattr.h],,[AC_MSG_ERROR([You must have attr/xattr.h from libattr])])
+
 PKG_PROG_PKG_CONFIG
 
 GIO_DEPENDENCY="gio-unix-2.0 >= 2.28"