diff --git a/README b/README
index 5af4d3537..941668555 100644
--- a/README
+++ b/README
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ In order to build awesome itself, you need header files and libs of:
   - pango and pangocairo
   - glib
   - GTK+ or Imlib2 (use --with-imlib2 with ./configure)
-  - dbus
+  - dbus (optional, use --with-dbus=no with ./configure to disable)
 
 In order to build the awesome man pages, you need these tools:
   - asciidoc (recent version)
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index fc706e590..085a588b5 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -125,8 +125,14 @@ PKG_CHECK_MODULES([glib], [glib-2.0],,
    [AC_MSG_ERROR([awesome requires glib-2.0.])])
 PKG_CHECK_MODULES([gthread], [gthread-2.0],,
    [AC_MSG_ERROR([awesome requires gthread-2.0.])])
-PKG_CHECK_MODULES([dbus], [dbus-1],,
-   [AC_MSG_ERROR([awesome requires dbus-1.])])
+
+AC_ARG_WITH([dbus], AS_HELP_STRING([--with-dbus], [Build with D-BUS (default: enabled)]), [], [with_dbus=yes])
+if test "x$with_dbus" == "xyes"; then
+	PKG_CHECK_MODULES([dbus], [dbus-1],,
+		[AC_MSG_ERROR([awesome requires dbus-1.])])
+	AC_DEFINE([WITH_DBUS],1,[Defined to use D-BUS])
+fi
+
 AC_ARG_WITH([imlib2], AS_HELP_STRING([--with-imlib2], [Build with Imlib2 (default: disabled)]))
 
 if test "x$with_imlib2" == "xyes"; then
diff --git a/dbus.c b/dbus.c
index 049e7e7eb..d91af9eb6 100644
--- a/dbus.c
+++ b/dbus.c
@@ -18,6 +18,9 @@
  * 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA.
  *
  */
+#include "config.h"
+
+#ifdef HAVE_DBUS
 
 #include <dbus/dbus.h>
 
@@ -189,4 +192,28 @@ a_dbus_cleanup(void)
     dbus_connection = NULL;
 }
 
+#else /* HAVE_DBUS */
+
+#include "dbus.h"
+
+void
+a_dbus_process_requests(int *fd __attribute__((unused)))
+{
+    /* empty */
+}
+
+bool
+a_dbus_init(int *fd)
+{
+    *fd = -1;
+    return false;
+}
+
+void
+a_dbus_cleanup(void)
+{
+    /* empty */
+}
+
+#endif
 // vim: filetype=c:expandtab:shiftwidth=4:tabstop=8:softtabstop=4:encoding=utf-8:textwidth=80