diff --git a/Documentation/conf.py b/Documentation/conf.py
index a5c45df0bd83..d927737e3c10 100644
--- a/Documentation/conf.py
+++ b/Documentation/conf.py
@@ -31,6 +31,12 @@ def have_command(cmd):
 # Get Sphinx version
 major, minor, patch = sphinx.version_info[:3]
 
+#
+# Warn about older versions that we don't want to support for much
+# longer.
+#
+if (major < 2) or (major == 2 and minor < 4):
+    print('WARNING: support for Sphinx < 2.4 will be removed soon.')
 
 # If extensions (or modules to document with autodoc) are in another directory,
 # add these directories to sys.path here. If the directory is relative to the
@@ -339,7 +345,11 @@ html_use_smartypants = False
 
 # Custom sidebar templates, maps document names to template names.
 # Note that the RTD theme ignores this
-html_sidebars = { '**': ["about.html", 'searchbox.html', 'localtoc.html', 'sourcelink.html']}
+html_sidebars = { '**': ['searchbox.html', 'localtoc.html', 'sourcelink.html']}
+
+# about.html is available for alabaster theme. Add it at the front.
+if html_theme == 'alabaster':
+    html_sidebars['**'].insert(0, 'about.html')
 
 # Output file base name for HTML help builder.
 htmlhelp_basename = 'TheLinuxKerneldoc'
diff --git a/Documentation/sphinx/load_config.py b/Documentation/sphinx/load_config.py
index eeb394b39e2c..8b416bfd75ac 100644
--- a/Documentation/sphinx/load_config.py
+++ b/Documentation/sphinx/load_config.py
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 
 import os
 import sys
-from sphinx.util.pycompat import execfile_
+from sphinx.util.osutil import fs_encoding
 
 # ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 def loadConfig(namespace):
@@ -48,7 +48,9 @@ def loadConfig(namespace):
             sys.stdout.write("load additional sphinx-config: %s\n" % config_file)
             config = namespace.copy()
             config['__file__'] = config_file
-            execfile_(config_file, config)
+            with open(config_file, 'rb') as f:
+                code = compile(f.read(), fs_encoding, 'exec')
+                exec(code, config)
             del config['__file__']
             namespace.update(config)
         else: