diff --git a/config/ola.m4 b/config/ola.m4
index e4df4427f..0ac3f7cc1 100644
--- a/config/ola.m4
+++ b/config/ola.m4
@@ -25,8 +25,7 @@ AC_REQUIRE_CPP()
 PKG_CHECK_MODULES(libprotobuf, [protobuf >= $1])
 
 AC_MSG_CHECKING([protobuf library version])
-PROTOBUF_VERSION=`protoc --version | awk '{print [$]2}'`;
-AC_MSG_NOTICE([PROTOBUF VERSION $PROTOBUF_VERSION])
+PROTOBUF_VERSION=`pkg-config --modversion protobuf`;
 AC_MSG_RESULT([$PROTOBUF_VERSION])
 AC_SUBST([PROTOBUF_VERSION])
 AC_SUBST([libprotobuf_CFLAGS])