diff --git a/SConstruct b/SConstruct
index d769a4d43b6..bb9314e9869 100644
--- a/SConstruct
+++ b/SConstruct
@@ -82,6 +82,7 @@ opts.AddVariables(
     ('boost_suffix', 'Suffix of boost libraries.'),
     PathVariable('gettextdir', 'Root directory of Gettext\'s installation.', "", OptionalPath), 
     PathVariable('gtkdir', 'Directory where GTK SDK is installed.', "", OptionalPath),
+    PathVariable('luadir', 'Directory where Lua binary package is unpacked.', "", OptionalPath),
     ('host', 'Cross-compile host.', ''),
     ('jobs', 'Set the number of parallel compilations', "1", lambda key, value, env: int(value), int),
     BoolVariable('distcc', 'Use distcc', False),
@@ -201,7 +202,7 @@ def Warning(message):
     return False
 
 from metasconf import init_metasconf
-configure_args = dict(custom_tests = init_metasconf(env, ["cplusplus", "python_devel", "sdl", "boost", "pango", "pkgconfig", "gettext"]), config_h = "config.h",
+configure_args = dict(custom_tests = init_metasconf(env, ["cplusplus", "python_devel", "sdl", "boost", "pango", "pkgconfig", "gettext", "lua"]), config_h = "config.h",
     log_file="build/config.log", conf_dir="build/sconf_temp")
 
 env.MergeFlags(env["extra_flags_config"])
@@ -219,7 +220,7 @@ if env["prereqs"]:
     have_client_prereqs = have_server_prereqs and \
         conf.CheckPango("cairo") and \
         conf.CheckPKG("fontconfig") and \
-        (conf.CheckPKG("lua >= 5.1") or conf.CheckPKG("lua5.1 >= 5.1")) and \
+        conf.CheckLua(require_version = "5.1") and \
         conf.CheckBoost("regex") and \
         conf.CheckSDL("SDL_ttf", require_version = "2.0.8") and \
         conf.CheckSDL("SDL_mixer", require_version = '1.2.0') and \
diff --git a/scons/lua.py b/scons/lua.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..857ad8c94a4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scons/lua.py
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+# vi: syntax=python:et:ts=4
+from pkgconfig import run_pkg_config
+
+def CheckLua(context, require_version):
+    env = context.env
+
+    context.Message("Checking for Lua version " + require_version + "... ")
+
+    version = ".".join(require_version.split(".")[0:2])
+
+    if env.get("luadir"):
+        env.Append(LIBPATH = ["$luadir"], CPPPATH = ["$luadir/include"], LIBS = "lua" + version)
+        found = True
+    else:
+        found = run_pkg_config(env, "lua >= " + require_version) or run_pkg_config(env, "lua" + version + " >= " + require_version)
+
+    result = found and context.TryLink("""
+    #include <lualib.h>
+    int main() { luaL_newstate(); }
+    """, ".c")
+    if result:
+        context.Result("yes")
+        return True
+    else:
+        context.Result("no")
+        return False
+
+config_checks = { "CheckLua" : CheckLua }