when compiling GD: configure.ac:28: error: Autoconf version 2.58 or higher is required

If you get the following error when compiling GD 2.0.34 or higher:

Trying to make gd...
cd . && /bin/sh
/usr/local/directadmin/customapache/gd-2.0.34/config/missing --run autoheader
configure.ac:28: error: Autoconf version 2.58 or higher is required
aclocal.m4:7856: AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE is expanded from...
configure.ac:28: the top level
autom4te: /usr/bin/m4 failed with exit status: 1
autoheader: /usr/bin/autom4te failed with exit status: 1

Run the following to fix it:

cd /usr/src
wget http://files.directadmin.com/services/custombuild/autoconf-2.61.tar.gz
tar xzf autoconf-2.61.tar.gz
cd autoconf-2.61
./configure --prefix=/usr
make
make install

and then try again.