diff --git a/Rakefile b/Rakefile
index 98f6b8952..c428d3bd8 100644
--- a/Rakefile
+++ b/Rakefile
@@ -464,11 +464,6 @@ rule '.1' => '.xml' do |t|
 
   stylesheet = "#{c(:DOCBOOK_ROOT)}/manpages/docbook.xsl"
 
-  if !FileTest.exists?(stylesheet)
-    puts "Error: the DocBook stylesheet '#{stylesheet}' does not exist."
-    exit 1
-  end
-
   runq "xsltproc", t.source, "#{c(:XSLTPROC)} #{c(:XSLTPROC_FLAGS)} -o #{t.name} #{stylesheet} #{t.sources.join(" ")}", :filter_output => filter
 end
 
diff --git a/ac/ax_docbook.m4 b/ac/ax_docbook.m4
index 038dec6db..3de4b4810 100644
--- a/ac/ax_docbook.m4
+++ b/ac/ax_docbook.m4
@@ -8,10 +8,12 @@ if ! test -z "$DOCBOOK_ROOT"; then
 
 else
   AC_MSG_CHECKING([for DocBook XSL root directory])
-  for i in `ls -d /usr/share/xml/docbook/xsl-stylesheets*-nons 2> /dev/null` \
-            /usr/share/xml/docbook/stylesheet/xsl/nwalsh \
-            /usr/share/xml/docbook/stylesheet/nwalsh \
-            `ls -d /usr/share/sgml/docbook/xsl-stylesheets* /usr/share/xml/docbook/xsl-stylesheets* 2> /dev/null` \
+
+  PREFIX_FOR_XSL=${MINGW_PREFIX:-/usr}
+  for i in `ls -d $PREFIX_FOR_XSL/share/xml/docbook/xsl-stylesheets*-nons 2> /dev/null` \
+            $PREFIX_FOR_XSL/share/xml/docbook/stylesheet/xsl/nwalsh \
+            $PREFIX_FOR_XSL/share/xml/docbook/stylesheet/nwalsh \
+            `ls -d $PREFIX_FOR_XSL/share/sgml/docbook/xsl-stylesheets* $PREFIX_FOR_XSL/share/xml/docbook/xsl-stylesheets* 2> /dev/null` \
     ; do
     if test -f "$i/manpages/docbook.xsl"; then
       DOCBOOK_ROOT="$i"