diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index 5a3e765106..f05ba84545 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -38,7 +38,6 @@ addons:
       - libapparmor-dev
       - dnsmasq-base
       - librbd-dev
-      - w3c-dtd-xhtml
 
 notifications:
   irc:
diff --git a/docs/Makefile.am b/docs/Makefile.am
index 34f84e526d..53eb27f9f6 100644
--- a/docs/Makefile.am
+++ b/docs/Makefile.am
@@ -268,14 +268,10 @@ MAINTAINERCLEANFILES += \
 	    || { rm $@ && exit 1; }; fi
 
 %.html: %.html.tmp
-	@if test -x $(XMLLINT) && test -x $(XMLCATALOG) ; then \
-	  if $(XMLCATALOG) '$(XML_CATALOG_FILE)' \
-	    "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" > /dev/null ; then \
+	@if test -x $(XMLLINT) ; then \
 	  echo "Validating $@" ; \
-	  SGML_CATALOG_FILES='$(XML_CATALOG_FILE)' \
-	  $(XMLLINT) --catalogs --nonet --format --valid $< > $(srcdir)/$@ \
-	  || { rm $(srcdir)/$@ && exit 1; }; \
-	  else echo "missing XHTML1 DTD"; cat $< > $(srcdir)/$@ ; fi ; fi
+	  $(XMLLINT) --nonet --format $< > $(srcdir)/$@ \
+	  || { rm $(srcdir)/$@ && exit 1; }; fi
 
 %.php.tmp: %.php.in site.xsl page.xsl
 	if [ -x $(XSLTPROC) ] ; then \
@@ -300,12 +296,8 @@ html/index.html: libvirt-api.xml newapi.xsl page.xsl $(APIBUILD_STAMP)
 	  --stringparam builddir '$(abs_top_builddir)' \
 	  --stringparam timestamp $(timestamp) \
 	  $(srcdir)/newapi.xsl $(srcdir)/libvirt-api.xml ; fi && \
-	if test -x $(XMLLINT) && test -x $(XMLCATALOG) ; then \
-	  if $(XMLCATALOG) '$(XML_CATALOG_FILE)' "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" \
-	    > /dev/null ; then \
-	  SGML_CATALOG_FILES='$(XML_CATALOG_FILE)' \
-	  $(XMLLINT) --catalogs --nonet --valid --noout $(srcdir)/html/*.html ; \
-	  else echo "missing XHTML1 DTD"; cat $< > $(srcdir)/$@ ; fi ; fi
+	if test -x $(XMLLINT) ; then \
+	  $(XMLLINT) --nonet --noout $(srcdir)/html/*.html ; fi
 
 $(addprefix $(srcdir)/,$(devhelphtml)): $(srcdir)/libvirt-api.xml $(devhelpxsl)
 	$(AM_V_GEN)if [ -x $(XSLTPROC) ] ; then \
diff --git a/libvirt.spec.in b/libvirt.spec.in
index b074bd171b..d1cff4caf6 100644
--- a/libvirt.spec.in
+++ b/libvirt.spec.in
@@ -301,7 +301,6 @@ BuildRequires: systemd-units
 BuildRequires: xen-devel
 %endif
 BuildRequires: libxml2-devel
-BuildRequires: xhtml1-dtds
 BuildRequires: libxslt
 BuildRequires: readline-devel
 BuildRequires: ncurses-devel
diff --git a/m4/virt-external-programs.m4 b/m4/virt-external-programs.m4
index f2f62f4928..4a10c85adc 100644
--- a/m4/virt-external-programs.m4
+++ b/m4/virt-external-programs.m4
@@ -24,7 +24,6 @@ AC_DEFUN([LIBVIRT_CHECK_EXTERNAL_PROGRAMS], [
 
   dnl Miscellaneous external programs.
   AC_PATH_PROG([XMLLINT], [xmllint], [/usr/bin/xmllint])
-  AC_PATH_PROG([XMLCATALOG], [xmlcatalog], [/usr/bin/xmlcatalog])
   AC_PATH_PROG([XSLTPROC], [xsltproc], [/usr/bin/xsltproc])
   AC_PATH_PROG([AUGPARSE], [augparse], [/usr/bin/augparse])
   AC_PROG_MKDIR_P