diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index 4034101b..e2873e62 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -1,5 +1,11 @@
   Changelog for the c-ares project
 
+* December 3 2007 (Daniel Stenberg)
+
+- Brad Spencer fixed the configure script to assume that there's no
+  /dev/urandom when built cross-compiled as then the script cannot check for
+  it.
+
 Version 1.5.1 (Nov 21, 2007)
 
 * November 21 2007 (Daniel Stenberg)
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 46ba266a..f5adf732 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -828,8 +828,15 @@ AC_HELP_STRING([--with-random=FILE],
                [read randomness from FILE (default=/dev/urandom)]),
     [ RANDOM_FILE="$withval" ],
     [
-        dnl Check for random device
-        AC_CHECK_FILE("/dev/urandom", [ RANDOM_FILE="/dev/urandom"] )
+        dnl Check for random device.  If we're cross compiling, we can't
+        dnl check, and it's better to assume it doesn't exist than it is
+        dnl to fail on AC_CHECK_FILE or later.
+        if test "$cross_compiling" = "no"; then
+          AC_CHECK_FILE("/dev/urandom", [ RANDOM_FILE="/dev/urandom"] )
+        else
+          AC_MSG_WARN([cannot check for /dev/urandom while cross compiling; assuming none])
+        fi
+        
     ]
 )
 if test -n "$RANDOM_FILE" && test X"$RANDOM_FILE" != Xno ; then