Syntax error near unexpected token LIBHTPMINVERSION PKG_CHECK_MODULES in Ubuntu

When compiling suricata 1.4.1 fresh in Ubuntu, after apt-get install all the necessary dependencies, you may see this:

syntax error near unexpected token `LIBHTPMINVERSION,'
`        PKG_CHECK_MODULES(LIBHTPMINVERSION,

Well, if you google it, it's more like you need to install pkg-config. However, I have it installed. There was another post saying, maybe my pkg-config is not updated... Turns out the workaround is to modify the ACLOCAL_FLAGS described here. By default, it's

export ACLOCAL_FLAGS="-I /usr/share/aclocal"