diff --git a/NEWS b/CHANGELOG.md
similarity index 100%
rename from NEWS
rename to CHANGELOG.md
diff --git a/Makefile.am b/Makefile.am
index 7106e8dd..c8d60862 100644
--- a/Makefile.am
+++ b/Makefile.am
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ EXTRA_DIST =					\
 	meson_options.txt			\
 	build-aux/git-version-gen		\
 	build-aux/meson/check-spice-common	\
+	CHANGELOG.md				\
 	.version				\
 	$(NULL)
 
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 22645830..6fb0d22c 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ m4_include([subprojects/spice-common/m4/spice-deps.m4])
 AM_CONFIG_HEADER([config.h])
 AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR(.)
 
-AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE([dist-bzip2 no-dist-gzip subdir-objects])
+AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE([dist-bzip2 no-dist-gzip subdir-objects foreign])
 AM_MAINTAINER_MODE
 
 AC_PROG_CC