diff --git a/pkgs/development/tools/misc/automake/automake-1.11.x.nix b/pkgs/development/tools/misc/automake/automake-1.11.x.nix
index 65ef3a9a146d..2172460b3c9f 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/tools/misc/automake/automake-1.11.x.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/tools/misc/automake/automake-1.11.x.nix
@@ -15,6 +15,8 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     sha256 = "06476qbd16dlasz29drmljqmr4gwx4qgcl075033b2hc73wx2ijg";
   };
 
+  patches = [ ./fix-test-autoconf-2.69.patch ];
+
   buildInputs = [perl autoconf makeWrapper];
 
   inherit doCheck;
@@ -27,6 +29,9 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   # "fixed" path in generated files!
   dontPatchShebangs = true;
 
+  # Run the test suite in parallel.
+  enableParallelBuilding = true;
+
   meta = {
     homepage = http://www.gnu.org/software/automake/;
     description = "GNU Automake, a GNU standard-compliant makefile generator";
diff --git a/pkgs/development/tools/misc/automake/fix-test-autoconf-2.69.patch b/pkgs/development/tools/misc/automake/fix-test-autoconf-2.69.patch
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..2ffa91f24eda
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/development/tools/misc/automake/fix-test-autoconf-2.69.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+With Autoconf 2.69 (instead of 2.68), config.{guess,sub} are needed.
+
+--- automake-1.11.2/tests/compile_f90_c_cxx.test	2011-12-20 21:56:29.000000000 +0100
++++ automake-1.11.2/tests/compile_f90_c_cxx.test	2012-07-07 13:35:58.000000000 +0200
+@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ END
+ : > baz.cc
+ 
+ $ACLOCAL
+-$AUTOMAKE
++$AUTOMAKE --add-missing
+ 
+ # Look for the macros at the beginning of rules.  Be careful, as there
+ # are literal tabs at the beginning of the search strings.