diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 23256da..283a8bc 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -133,7 +133,8 @@ install (DIRECTORY info DESTINATION ${CMAKE_INSTALL_DATADIR}/${PROJECT_NAME})
 find_program (ASCIIDOCTOR_EXECUTABLE asciidoctor)
 find_program (A2X_EXECUTABLE a2x)
 if (NOT ASCIIDOCTOR_EXECUTABLE AND NOT A2X_EXECUTABLE)
-	message (FATAL_ERROR "Neither asciidoctor nor a2x were found")
+	message (WARNING "Neither asciidoctor nor a2x were found, "
+		"falling back to a substandard manual page generator")
 endif ()
 
 foreach (page ${PROJECT_NAME})
@@ -155,6 +156,13 @@ foreach (page ${PROJECT_NAME})
 				"${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/${page}.adoc"
 			DEPENDS ${page}.adoc
 			COMMENT "Generating man page for ${page}" VERBATIM)
+	else ()
+		set (ASCIIMAN ${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/liberty/tools/asciiman.awk)
+		add_custom_command (OUTPUT ${page_output}
+			COMMAND env LC_ALL=C awk -f ${ASCIIMAN}
+				"${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/${page}.adoc" > ${page_output}
+			DEPENDS ${page}.adoc ${ASCIIMAN}
+			COMMENT "Generating man page for ${page}" VERBATIM)
 	endif ()
 endforeach ()
 
diff --git a/README.adoc b/README.adoc
index 073e265..5ed2c51 100644
--- a/README.adoc
+++ b/README.adoc
@@ -38,8 +38,8 @@ The rest of this README will concern itself with externalities.
 
 Building
 --------
-Build dependencies: CMake, pkg-config, asciidoctor or asciidoc,
-                    liberty (included), termo (included) +
+Build dependencies: CMake, pkg-config, awk, liberty (included),
+ termo (included), asciidoctor or asciidoc (recommended but optional) +
 Runtime dependencies: ncursesw, libunistring, cURL +
 Optional runtime dependencies: fftw3, libpulse, x11, xft, Perl + cURL (lyrics)
 
diff --git a/liberty b/liberty
index 63aed8f..688c458 160000
--- a/liberty
+++ b/liberty
@@ -1 +1 @@
-Subproject commit 63aed8f0fd61e097ae9eea43977cac4af595ca43
+Subproject commit 688c458095974fcd85b2f92c6b5380edfb564398