diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 05a56150bc0f3093eac9d1917ef19ea3a8e78272..b31252b87ba83af7f5864ae0232a2e11fb95012b 100755
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -113,7 +113,7 @@ AM_CONDITIONAL(USE_DARSHAN, [test "x${use_darshan}" = xyes])
 AC_ARG_WITH([online],[AS_HELP_STRING([--with-online@<:@=DIR@:>@],
                         [Build with the online workloads and argobots support])],
                       [use_online=yes],[use_online=no])
-if test "x${use_online}" != "x" ; then
+if test "x${use_online}" != "xno" ; then
     AM_CONDITIONAL(USE_ONLINE, true)
     PKG_CHECK_MODULES_STATIC([ARGOBOTS], [argobots], [],
                       [AC_MSG_ERROR([Could not find working argobots installation via pkg-config])])