diff --git a/debian/changelog b/debian/changelog
index bd2ed8afd..b6e477a3c 100644
--- a/debian/changelog
+++ b/debian/changelog
@@ -2,6 +2,8 @@ ikiwiki (2.44) UNRELEASED; urgency=low
 
   * Bring back the svnrepo setup file option. This is needed for
     recentchangediff to work with svn repos.
+  * Allow libtext-markdown-perl to satisfy dependencies, as a
+    an alternative to the markdown package.
 
  -- Joey Hess <joeyh@debian.org>  Thu, 17 Apr 2008 14:33:54 -0400
 
diff --git a/debian/control b/debian/control
index d025735bc..19a3156ce 100644
--- a/debian/control
+++ b/debian/control
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ Source: ikiwiki
 Section: web
 Priority: optional
 Build-Depends: perl, debhelper (>= 5)
-Build-Depends-Indep: dpkg-dev (>= 1.9.0), libxml-simple-perl, markdown, libtimedate-perl, libhtml-template-perl, libhtml-scrubber-perl, wdg-html-validator, libhtml-parser-perl, liburi-perl
+Build-Depends-Indep: dpkg-dev (>= 1.9.0), libxml-simple-perl, markdown | libtext-markdown-perl, libtimedate-perl, libhtml-template-perl, libhtml-scrubber-perl, wdg-html-validator, libhtml-parser-perl, liburi-perl
 Maintainer: Joey Hess <joeyh@debian.org>
 Uploaders: Joey Hess <joeyh@debian.org>, Josh Triplett <josh@freedesktop.org>
 Standards-Version: 3.7.3
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ Vcs-Browser: http://git.ikiwiki.info/?p=ikiwiki
 
 Package: ikiwiki
 Architecture: all
-Depends: ${perl:Depends}, markdown, libhtml-scrubber-perl, libhtml-template-perl, libhtml-parser-perl, liburi-perl
+Depends: ${perl:Depends}, markdown | libtext-markdown-perl, libhtml-scrubber-perl, libhtml-template-perl, libhtml-parser-perl, liburi-perl
 Recommends: gcc | c-compiler, libc6-dev | libc-dev, subversion | git-core (>= 1:1.5.0) | tla | bzr (>= 0.91) | mercurial | monotone (>= 0.38), libxml-simple-perl, libnet-openid-consumer-perl, liblwpx-paranoidagent-perl, libtimedate-perl, libcgi-formbuilder-perl (>= 3.05), libcgi-session-perl (>= 4.14-1), libmail-sendmail-perl
 Suggests: viewvc | gitweb | viewcvs, hyperestraier, librpc-xml-perl, libtext-wikiformat-perl, python, python-docutils, polygen, tidy, libxml-feed-perl, libmailtools-perl, perlmagick, libfile-mimeinfo-perl, libcrypt-ssleay-perl, liblocale-gettext-perl (>= 1.05-1), libtext-typography-perl, libtext-csv-perl, libdigest-sha1-perl, graphviz
 Conflicts: ikiwiki-plugin-table