diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index b19877e3843..26cabf92bda 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ matrix:
     - env: IMAGE=x86_64-gnu-make
     - env: IMAGE=x86_64-gnu-llvm-3.7 ALLOW_PR=1 RUST_BACKTRACE=1
     - env: IMAGE=x86_64-musl
+    - env: IMAGE=x86_64-gnu-distcheck
 
     # OSX builders
     - env: >
diff --git a/src/bootstrap/check.rs b/src/bootstrap/check.rs
index ec0243908ed..0c6680fab66 100644
--- a/src/bootstrap/check.rs
+++ b/src/bootstrap/check.rs
@@ -554,6 +554,7 @@ pub fn distcheck(build: &Build) {
        .current_dir(&dir);
     build.run(&mut cmd);
     build.run(Command::new("./configure")
+                     .args(&build.config.configure_args)
                      .current_dir(&dir));
     build.run(Command::new(build_helper::make(&build.config.build))
                      .arg("check")
diff --git a/src/bootstrap/config.rs b/src/bootstrap/config.rs
index 9767afd73ca..11c5b374ed9 100644
--- a/src/bootstrap/config.rs
+++ b/src/bootstrap/config.rs
@@ -94,6 +94,7 @@ pub struct Config {
     pub nodejs: Option<PathBuf>,
     pub gdb: Option<PathBuf>,
     pub python: Option<PathBuf>,
+    pub configure_args: Vec<String>,
 }
 
 /// Per-target configuration stored in the global configuration structure.
@@ -519,6 +520,11 @@ impl Config {
                 "CFG_ENABLE_SCCACHE" if value == "1" => {
                     self.ccache = Some("sccache".to_string());
                 }
+                "CFG_CONFIGURE_ARGS" if value.len() > 0 => {
+                    self.configure_args = value.split_whitespace()
+                                               .map(|s| s.to_string())
+                                               .collect();
+                }
                 _ => {}
             }
         }
diff --git a/src/bootstrap/util.rs b/src/bootstrap/util.rs
index c9e756b6f99..2ab3776ada0 100644
--- a/src/bootstrap/util.rs
+++ b/src/bootstrap/util.rs
@@ -76,9 +76,9 @@ pub fn cp_r(src: &Path, dst: &Path) {
 /// Copies the `src` directory recursively to `dst`. Both are assumed to exist
 /// when this function is called. Unwanted files or directories can be skipped
 /// by returning `false` from the filter function.
-pub fn cp_filtered<F: Fn(&Path) -> bool>(src: &Path, dst: &Path, filter: &F) {
+pub fn cp_filtered(src: &Path, dst: &Path, filter: &Fn(&Path) -> bool) {
     // Inner function does the actual work
-    fn recurse<F: Fn(&Path) -> bool>(src: &Path, dst: &Path, relative: &Path, filter: &F) {
+    fn recurse(src: &Path, dst: &Path, relative: &Path, filter: &Fn(&Path) -> bool) {
         for f in t!(fs::read_dir(src)) {
             let f = t!(f);
             let path = f.path();
diff --git a/src/ci/docker/x86_64-gnu-distcheck/Dockerfile b/src/ci/docker/x86_64-gnu-distcheck/Dockerfile
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..880c70866b0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/ci/docker/x86_64-gnu-distcheck/Dockerfile
@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+FROM ubuntu:16.04
+
+RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
+  g++ \
+  make \
+  file \
+  curl \
+  ca-certificates \
+  python2.7 \
+  git \
+  cmake \
+  sudo \
+  gdb \
+  xz-utils
+
+ENV SCCACHE_DIGEST=7237e38e029342fa27b7ac25412cb9d52554008b12389727320bd533fd7f05b6a96d55485f305caf95e5c8f5f97c3313e10012ccad3e752aba2518f3522ba783
+RUN curl -L https://api.pub.build.mozilla.org/tooltool/sha512/$SCCACHE_DIGEST | \
+      tar xJf - -C /usr/local/bin --strip-components=1
+
+RUN curl -OL https://github.com/Yelp/dumb-init/releases/download/v1.2.0/dumb-init_1.2.0_amd64.deb && \
+    dpkg -i dumb-init_*.deb && \
+    rm dumb-init_*.deb
+ENTRYPOINT ["/usr/bin/dumb-init", "--"]
+
+ENV RUST_CONFIGURE_ARGS --build=x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
+ENV XPY_RUN test distcheck
diff --git a/src/ci/run.sh b/src/ci/run.sh
index 152694346aa..3dc3cf91501 100755
--- a/src/ci/run.sh
+++ b/src/ci/run.sh
@@ -43,10 +43,14 @@ else
     ncpus=$(nproc)
 fi
 
-make -j $ncpus tidy
-make -j $ncpus
-if [ ! -z "$XPY_CHECK" ]; then
-  exec python2.7 $SRC/x.py $XPY_CHECK
+if [ ! -z "$XPY_RUN" ]; then
+  exec python2.7 $SRC/x.py $XPY_RUN
 else
-  exec make $RUST_CHECK_TARGET -j $ncpus
+  make -j $ncpus tidy
+  make -j $ncpus
+  if [ ! -z "$XPY_CHECK" ]; then
+    exec python2.7 $SRC/x.py $XPY_CHECK
+  else
+    exec make $RUST_CHECK_TARGET -j $ncpus
+  fi
 fi