diff --git a/src/LaTeXPackages.cpp b/src/LaTeXPackages.cpp
index e708df1dfe..0f4129eabe 100644
--- a/src/LaTeXPackages.cpp
+++ b/src/LaTeXPackages.cpp
@@ -22,9 +22,12 @@
 #include "support/debug.h"
 #include "support/FileName.h"
 #include "support/filetools.h"
+#include "support/gettext.h"
 #include "support/lstrings.h"
 #include "support/Package.h"
 
+#include "frontends/alert.h"
+
 
 using namespace std;
 using namespace lyx::support;
@@ -35,7 +38,7 @@ namespace lyx {
 LaTeXPackages::Packages LaTeXPackages::packages_;
 
 
-void LaTeXPackages::getAvailable()
+void LaTeXPackages::getAvailable(bool retry)
 {
 	Lexer lex;
 	support::FileName const real_file = libFileSearch("", "packages.lst");
@@ -73,10 +76,40 @@ void LaTeXPackages::getAvailable()
 		}
 	}
 	// Check if the pkglist has current format.
-	// Reconfigure and re-parse if not.
+	// Reconfigure once and re-parse if not.
 	if (lstformat != "2") {
+		// If we have already reconfigured, check if there is an outdated config file
+		// which produces the outdated lstformat
+		if (retry) {
+			// check if we have an outdated chkconfig.ltx file in user dir
+			support::FileName chkconfig = fileSearch(addPath(package().user_support().absFileName(), ""),
+								 "chkconfig.ltx", string(), must_exist);
+			if (chkconfig.empty()) {
+				// nothing found. So we can only warn
+				frontend::Alert::warning(_("Invalid package list format!"),
+					_("The format of your LaTeX packages list is wrong. Please file a bug report."));
+				return;
+			}
+			// Found. Try to rename and warn.
+			support::FileName chkconfig_bak;
+			chkconfig_bak.set(chkconfig.absFileName() + ".bak");
+			if (chkconfig.renameTo(chkconfig_bak))
+				// renaming succeeded
+				frontend::Alert::warning(_("Outdated configuration script detected!"),
+					_("We have detected an outdated script 'chkconfig.ltx' in your user directory.\n"
+					  "The script has been renamed to 'chkconfig.ltx.bak'.\n"
+					  "If you did not copy the script there by purpose, you can safely delete it."));
+			else {
+				// renaming failed
+				frontend::Alert::warning(_("Outdated configuration script detected!"),
+					bformat(_("We have detected an outdated script 'chkconfig.ltx' in your user directory\n"
+					  "(%1$s).\n"
+					  "Please delete or update this file!"), from_utf8(chkconfig.absFileName())));
+				return;
+			}
+		}
 		package().reconfigureUserLyXDir("");
-		getAvailable();
+		getAvailable(true);
 	}
 }
 
diff --git a/src/LaTeXPackages.h b/src/LaTeXPackages.h
index dba6d039f6..12f3e4ec0b 100644
--- a/src/LaTeXPackages.h
+++ b/src/LaTeXPackages.h
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ namespace lyx {
 class LaTeXPackages {
 public:
 	/// Which of the required packages are installed?
-	static void getAvailable();
+	static void getAvailable(bool retry = false);
 	/// Is the (required) package available?
 	static bool isAvailable(std::string const & name);
 	/// Is the (required) package available at least as of