diff --git a/autogen.sh b/autogen.sh
index e48c5cc1..fbb61f8c 100755
--- a/autogen.sh
+++ b/autogen.sh
@@ -9,10 +9,25 @@ olddir=$(pwd)
 cd $srcdir
 
 (test -f configure.ac) || {
-        echo "*** ERROR: Directory '$srcdir' does not look like the top-level project directory ***"
+        echo "*** ERROR: Directory '$srcdir' does not look like" >&2
+        echo "*** like the top-level project directory" >&2
         exit 1
 }
 
+if ! gtkdocize --version > /dev/null; then
+        echo "*** ERROR: You must have gtkdocize installed" >&2
+        echo "*** to be able to reconfigure libvips." >&2
+        exit 1
+fi
+
+# this will only detect the most basic kind of missing gio error,
+# hopefully that's enough to catch this most times
+if ! pkg-config gobject-introspection-1.0 --exists; then
+        echo "*** ERROR: You must have gobject-introspection installed" >&2
+        echo "*** to be able to reconfigure libvips." >&2
+        exit 1
+fi
+
 # shellcheck disable=SC2016
 PKG_NAME=$(autoconf --trace 'AC_INIT:$1' configure.ac)