diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 135eec5d..1fb1e6a3 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -85,9 +85,17 @@ AC_ARG_ENABLE([valgrind],
 	[AS_HELP_STRING([--enable-valgrind],[enable the use of valgrind in testing])],
 	[
 	TESTENV="$VALGRIND"
+	CFLAGS="$CFLAGS -DCHECKER"
 	],
 	[])
 
+AC_ARG_ENABLE([debug],
+	[AS_HELP_STRING([--enable-debug],[enable debugging])],
+	[
+	TESTENV=""
+	CFLAGS="-O0 -g"
+	],
+	[])
 
 AC_ARG_VAR([TESTENV], [Test environment])
 AC_CONFIG_FILES([Makefile])
diff --git a/util.c b/util.c
index db0b3f04..38a085cc 100644
--- a/util.c
+++ b/util.c
@@ -722,6 +722,7 @@ void* malloc_nofail(size_t size)
 		exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
 	}
 
+#ifndef CHECKER /* Don't preinitialize when running for valgrind */
 	/* Here we preinitialize the memory to ensure that the OS is really allocating it */
 	/* and not only reserving the addressable space. */
 	/* Otherwise we are risking that the OOM (Out Of Memory) killer in Linux will kill the process. */
@@ -729,6 +730,7 @@ void* malloc_nofail(size_t size)
 	/* get a real error from malloc() instead than a process killed. */
 	/* Note that calloc() doesn't have the same effect. */
 	memset(ptr, 0xA5, size);
+#endif
 
 	mcounter += size;