diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 3849383..d904c78 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -170,17 +170,6 @@ if test x"$debug_enabled" != x"yes" ; then
     CFLAGS="-DNDEBUG $CFLAGS"
 fi
 
-AS_ECHO_N(["checking to see if linker understands -z,defs... "])
-LDFLAGS_OLD="-Wl $LDFLAGS"
-LDFLAGS="-Wl,-z,defs $LDFLAGS"
-AC_LINK_IFELSE([AC_LANG_PROGRAM()],
-    AS_ECHO("yes"),
-    AS_ECHO("no"); LDFLAGS="$LDFLAGS_OLD")
-
-dnl
-dnl Make sure we can actually handle the "--with-*" and "--enable-*" stuff.
-dnl
-
 dnl
 dnl Substitute the variables into the various Makefiles
 dnl