diff --git a/changes/bug1524 b/changes/bug1524
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..03d6ff51b1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changes/bug1524
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+ o Minor documentation fixes
+   - When a2x fails, mention that the user could disable manpages instead
+     of trying to fix their asciidoc installation.
diff --git a/doc/asciidoc-helper.sh b/doc/asciidoc-helper.sh
index ea0efbefdc..00f8b8d07f 100755
--- a/doc/asciidoc-helper.sh
+++ b/doc/asciidoc-helper.sh
@@ -46,13 +46,19 @@ elif [ "$1" = "man" ]; then
     if "$2" -f manpage $input; then
       mv $base.1 $output;
     else
-      echo "==================================";
-      echo;
-      echo "a2x is installed, but some required docbook support files are";
-      echo "missing. Please install docbook-xsl, docbook-xml, and";
-      echo "libxml2-utils (Debian) or similar.";
-      echo;
-      echo "==================================";
+      cat<<EOF
+==================================
+You need a working asciidoc installed to be able to build the manpage.
+
+a2x is installed, but for some reason it isn't working.  Sometimes
+This happens because required docbook support files are missing.
+Please install docbook-xsl, docbook-xml, and libxml2-utils (Debian) or
+similar.
+
+Alternatively, to build without manpages, use the --disable-asciidoc
+argument when calling configure.
+==================================
+EOF
       exit 1;
     fi
 fi