diff --git a/ompi/debuggers/dlopen_test.c b/ompi/debuggers/dlopen_test.c
index c129925b82..596bf6f0b1 100644
--- a/ompi/debuggers/dlopen_test.c
+++ b/ompi/debuggers/dlopen_test.c
@@ -12,17 +12,71 @@
 #include <stdio.h>
 #include "opal/libltdl/ltdl.h"
 
+static int do_test(void);
+
 int main(int argc, char *argv[])
 {
-    char *filename = "./libompi_dbg_msgq";
+#if OPAL_WANT_LIBLTDL
+    return do_test();
+#else
+    /* If OPAL wasn't built with libltdl support, then skip this test */
+    fprintf(stderr, "OPAL was not built with libltdl support; skipping\n");
+    return 77;
+#endif
+}
+
+static int do_test(void)
+{
+    FILE *fp;
+    char filename[] = "./libompi_dbg_msgq";
+    char full_filename[] = "./libompi_dbg_msgq.la";
+    char line[1024];
+    int happy;
     lt_dlhandle dlhandle;
 
 #if OPAL_HAVE_LTDL_ADVISE
     lt_dladvise dladvise;
 #endif
 
+    /* Double check that the .la file is there that we expect; if it's
+       not, skip this test. */
+    fp = fopen(full_filename, "r");
+    if (NULL == fp) {
+        fprintf(stderr, 
+                "File %s.la doesn't seem to exist; skipping this test\n",
+                full_filename);
+        exit(77);
+    }
+    /* We know the .la file is there, so read it, looking for the
+       dlopen value.  If the dlopen value is '' (i.e., empty), then
+       there's nothing to dlopen (i.e., OMPI was built with
+       --enable-static --disable-shared, so return 77 to skip this
+       test.  This is horrible, but I can't think of a better way to
+       check it (since there is no good way to #define whether we have
+       built statically or not...). */
+    happy = 0;
+    while (1) {
+        if (0 == fgets(line, sizeof(line) - 1, fp)) {
+            break;
+        }
+        if (0 == strncmp(line, "dlopen=", 6)) {
+            if (0 == strncmp(line + 7, "''", 2)) {
+                happy = 0;
+            } else {
+                happy = 1;
+            }
+            break;
+        }
+    }
+    fclose(fp);
+    if (!happy) {
+        fprintf(stderr, "No test file to dlopen (perhaps --enable-static?); skipping\n");
+        exit(77);
+    }
+
+    /* Startup LT */
     if (lt_dlinit() != 0) {
-        printf("Failed to lt_dlinit\n");
+        fprintf(stderr, "Failed to lt_dlinit\n");
         return 1;
     }
 
@@ -32,7 +86,7 @@ int main(int argc, char *argv[])
     if (lt_dladvise_init(&dladvise) ||
         lt_dladvise_ext(&dladvise) ||
         lt_dladvise_local(&dladvise)) {
-        printf("lt_dladvise failed to initialize properly\n");
+        fprintf(stderr, "lt_dladvise failed to initialize properly\n");
         return 1;
     }
     dlhandle = lt_dlopenadvise(filename, dladvise);
@@ -53,7 +107,7 @@ int main(int argc, char *argv[])
     if (lt_dladvise_init(&dladvise) ||
         lt_dladvise_ext(&dladvise) ||
         lt_dladvise_global(&dladvise)) {
-        printf("lt_dladvise failed to initialize properly\n");
+        fprintf(stderr, "lt_dladvise failed to initialize properly\n");
         return 1;
     }
     dlhandle = lt_dlopenadvise(filename, dladvise);
@@ -64,9 +118,10 @@ int main(int argc, char *argv[])
     if (NULL != dlhandle) {
         lt_dlclose(dlhandle);
 	printf("File opened with dladvise_global\n");
-	return 1;
+	return 0;
     }
-    printf("File failed to open with dladvise_global: %s\n", lt_dlerror());
+    fprintf(stderr, "File failed to open with dladvise_global: %s\n", 
+            lt_dlerror());
 
     return 2;
 }