diff --git a/pkgs/development/tools/misc/autoconf/default.nix b/pkgs/development/tools/misc/autoconf/default.nix
index ce18fd1a377a..b4de66d9bafc 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/tools/misc/autoconf/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/tools/misc/autoconf/default.nix
@@ -1,11 +1,11 @@
 { stdenv, fetchurl, m4, perl }:
 
 stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
-  name = "autoconf-2.68";
+  name = "autoconf-2.69";
 
   src = fetchurl {
-    url = "mirror://gnu/autoconf/${name}.tar.bz2";
-    sha256 = "1j1j8d2p3r9mzx8b2hnmfqy2683r2wyyvki6bs9cmm6n7wkzp4f4";
+    url = "mirror://gnu/autoconf/${name}.tar.xz";
+    sha256 = "113nlmidxy9kjr45kg9x3ngar4951mvag1js2a3j8nxcz34wxsv4";
   };
 
   buildInputs = [ m4 perl ];
@@ -14,13 +14,19 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   # http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.sysutils.autoconf.bugs/6822 for
   # details.
   # There are many test failures on `i386-pc-solaris2.11'.
-  doCheck = (stdenv.system != "i686-cygwin"
-             && stdenv.system != "i686-solaris");
+  doCheck = ((!stdenv.isCygwin) && (!stdenv.isSunOS));
 
   # Don't fixup "#! /bin/sh" in Autoconf, otherwise it will use the
   # "fixed" path in generated files!
   dontPatchShebangs = true;
 
+  enableParallelBuilding = true;
+
+  preCheck =
+    # Make the Autotest test suite run in parallel.
+    '' export TESTSUITEFLAGS="-j$NIX_BUILD_CORES"
+    '';
+
   meta = {
     homepage = http://www.gnu.org/software/autoconf/;
     description = "GNU Autoconf, a part of the GNU Build System";