diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 8023cb3..ab0c31a 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -217,6 +217,7 @@ AC_ARG_ENABLE(frame_pointers,
 	      , enable_frame_pointers=no)
 AM_CONDITIONAL(ENABLE_FRAME_POINTERS, test "$enable_frame_pointers" = yes)
 
+AC_MSG_CHECKING([for x86 without frame pointers])
 # Some x86_64 systems do not insert frame pointers by default.
 # We want to see if the current system is one of those.
 AC_COMPILE_IFELSE([AC_LANG_PROGRAM(, [return __x86_64__ == 1 ? 0 : 1])],
@@ -227,10 +228,14 @@ CFLAGS="$CFLAGS -S -O2 -o fp.s"
 # We do our own determination of success/failure in the grep, below.
 AC_COMPILE_IFELSE([AC_LANG_PROGRAM([int f(int x) {return x;}], [return f(0);])],
                   [:], [:])
+x86_no_fp_by_default=no
+AS_IF([test "$is_x86_64" = yes && ! grep 'mov.*rsp.*rbp' fp.s >/dev/null 2>&1], [x86_no_fp_by_default=yes])
 AM_CONDITIONAL(X86_64_AND_NO_FP_BY_DEFAULT,
-               test "$is_x86_64" = yes && ! grep 'mov.*rsp.*rbp' fp.s >/dev/null 2>&1)
+               test "$x86_no_fp_by_default" = yes)
 rm fp.s
 CFLAGS="$OLD_CFLAGS"
+AC_MSG_RESULT([$x86_no_fp_by_default])
+
 
 # We need to know if we're i386 so we can turn on -mmms, which is not
 # on by default for i386 (it is for x86_64).
@@ -464,3 +469,6 @@ AM_CONDITIONAL(WITH_STACK_TRACE, test "$enable_cpu_profiler" = yes -o \
 AC_CONFIG_FILES([Makefile
                  src/gperftools/tcmalloc.h src/windows/gperftools/tcmalloc.h])
 AC_OUTPUT
+
+AS_IF([test "$x86_no_fp_by_default" = yes && test "x$UNWIND_LIBS" = x],
+      [AC_MSG_WARN([No frame pointers and no libunwind. Expect backtrace capturing and unittests to fail])])