diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index eaea8fe58..436e1b78f 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -175,7 +175,7 @@ CFLAGS = $(CPPFLAGS) $(CWARNFLAGS) $(CDEBUGFLAGS) -I $(CCANDIR) $(EXTERNAL_INCLU
 CONFIGURATOR_CC := $(CC)
 
 LDFLAGS = $(PIE_LDFLAGS)
-LDLIBS = -L/usr/local/lib -lm -lgmp -lsqlite3 $(COVFLAGS)
+LDLIBS = -L/usr/local/lib -lm -lgmp -lsqlite3 -lz $(COVFLAGS)
 
 default: all-programs all-test-programs
 
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 19513768c..6f8066d23 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -58,7 +58,7 @@ For the impatient here's the gist of it for Ubuntu and Debian:
     sudo apt-get update
     sudo apt-get install -y \
       autoconf automake build-essential git libtool libgmp-dev \
-      libsqlite3-dev python python3 net-tools
+      libsqlite3-dev python python3 net-tools zlib1g-dev
     git clone https://github.com/ElementsProject/lightning.git
     cd lightning
     make
diff --git a/doc/INSTALL.md b/doc/INSTALL.md
index 4cf18f95a..1a426bd73 100644
--- a/doc/INSTALL.md
+++ b/doc/INSTALL.md
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ Library Requirements
 You will need several development libraries:
 * libsqlite3: for database support.
 * libgmp: for secp256k1
+* zlib: for compression routines.
 
 For actually doing development and running the tests, you will also need:
 * pip3: to install python-bitcoinlib
@@ -34,7 +35,7 @@ Get dependencies:
     sudo apt-get update
     sudo apt-get install -y \
       autoconf automake build-essential git libtool libgmp-dev \
-      libsqlite3-dev python python3 net-tools
+      libsqlite3-dev python python3 net-tools zlib1g-dev
 
 If you don't have Bitcoin installed locally you'll need to install that
 as well: