diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 545926a614494a725d11601335c9357513fa76db..e7fa328a4f28653bdafa7803c98f398ca14a434f 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -43,6 +43,7 @@
 /m4/ltversion.m4
 /m4/lt~obsolete.m4
 /test-driver
+py-compile
 Makefile
 Makefile.in
 version.h
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index a08ca85326d40b0062c76b37ca05e207b4cd19d6..856c41dda9b192da10585759a3cc51f67455a3fa 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ m4_include([m4/knot-version.m4])
 
 AC_INIT([knot], knot_PKG_VERSION, [knot-dns@labs.nic.cz])
 AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE([foreign std-options subdir-objects no-dist-gzip dist-xz -Wall -Werror])
+AM_PATH_PYTHON([3.4],[],[AC_MSG_NOTICE([building of libknot Python module is not possible])])
 AM_SILENT_RULES([yes])
 AC_CONFIG_SRCDIR([src/knot])
 AC_CONFIG_HEADERS([src/config.h])
diff --git a/python/Makefile.am b/python/Makefile.am
index 464d4fa744bacebcccf274f3b234602ab92299ca..f07e35d6612cba430dbe6a22f123405183697971 100644
--- a/python/Makefile.am
+++ b/python/Makefile.am
@@ -1,8 +1,10 @@
-EXTRA_DIST =			\
-	libknot/__init__.py.in	\
-	libknot/control.py	\
+EXTRA_DIST = \
 	setup.py.in
 
+nobase_python_PYTHON = \
+	libknot/__init__.py	\
+	libknot/control.py
+
 clean-local:
 	-rm -rf dist *.egg-info