diff --git a/block/curl.c b/block/curl.c
index d24a4c5897..4ff895df8f 100644
--- a/block/curl.c
+++ b/block/curl.c
@@ -37,26 +37,6 @@
 
 // #define DEBUG_VERBOSE
 
-#if LIBCURL_VERSION_NUM >= 0x071000
-/* The multi interface timer callback was introduced in 7.16.0 */
-#define NEED_CURL_TIMER_CALLBACK
-#define HAVE_SOCKET_ACTION
-#endif
-
-#ifndef HAVE_SOCKET_ACTION
-/* If curl_multi_socket_action isn't available, define it statically here in
- * terms of curl_multi_socket. Note that ev_bitmask will be ignored, which is
- * less efficient but still safe. */
-static CURLMcode __curl_multi_socket_action(CURLM *multi_handle,
-                                            curl_socket_t sockfd,
-                                            int ev_bitmask,
-                                            int *running_handles)
-{
-    return curl_multi_socket(multi_handle, sockfd, running_handles);
-}
-#define curl_multi_socket_action __curl_multi_socket_action
-#endif
-
 #define PROTOCOLS (CURLPROTO_HTTP | CURLPROTO_HTTPS | \
                    CURLPROTO_FTP | CURLPROTO_FTPS)
 
@@ -140,7 +120,6 @@ typedef struct BDRVCURLState {
 static void curl_clean_state(CURLState *s);
 static void curl_multi_do(void *arg);
 
-#ifdef NEED_CURL_TIMER_CALLBACK
 /* Called from curl_multi_do_locked, with s->mutex held.  */
 static int curl_timer_cb(CURLM *multi, long timeout_ms, void *opaque)
 {
@@ -156,7 +135,6 @@ static int curl_timer_cb(CURLM *multi, long timeout_ms, void *opaque)
     }
     return 0;
 }
-#endif
 
 /* Called from curl_multi_do_locked, with s->mutex held.  */
 static int curl_sock_cb(CURL *curl, curl_socket_t fd, int action,
@@ -433,7 +411,6 @@ static void curl_multi_do(void *arg)
 
 static void curl_multi_timeout_do(void *arg)
 {
-#ifdef NEED_CURL_TIMER_CALLBACK
     BDRVCURLState *s = (BDRVCURLState *)arg;
     int running;
 
@@ -446,9 +423,6 @@ static void curl_multi_timeout_do(void *arg)
 
     curl_multi_check_completion(s);
     qemu_mutex_unlock(&s->mutex);
-#else
-    abort();
-#endif
 }
 
 /* Called with s->mutex held.  */
@@ -598,10 +572,8 @@ static void curl_attach_aio_context(BlockDriverState *bs,
     s->multi = curl_multi_init();
     s->aio_context = new_context;
     curl_multi_setopt(s->multi, CURLMOPT_SOCKETFUNCTION, curl_sock_cb);
-#ifdef NEED_CURL_TIMER_CALLBACK
     curl_multi_setopt(s->multi, CURLMOPT_TIMERDATA, s);
     curl_multi_setopt(s->multi, CURLMOPT_TIMERFUNCTION, curl_timer_cb);
-#endif
 }
 
 static QemuOptsList runtime_opts = {
diff --git a/configure b/configure
index 29d2b1ebe6..617456676d 100755
--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -3427,17 +3427,12 @@ done
 ##########################################
 # curl probe
 if test "$curl" != "no" ; then
-  if $pkg_config libcurl --exists; then
-    curlconfig="$pkg_config libcurl"
-  else
-    curlconfig=curl-config
-  fi
   cat > $TMPC << EOF
 #include <curl/curl.h>
 int main(void) { curl_easy_init(); curl_multi_setopt(0, 0, 0); return 0; }
 EOF
-  curl_cflags=$($curlconfig --cflags 2>/dev/null)
-  curl_libs=$($curlconfig --libs 2>/dev/null)
+  curl_cflags=$($pkg_config libcurl --cflags 2>/dev/null)
+  curl_libs=$($pkg_config libcurl --libs 2>/dev/null)
   if compile_prog "$curl_cflags" "$curl_libs" ; then
     curl=yes
   else