diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index ee3bf9251..77c275994 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,5 +1,9 @@
 2008-03-13  Badlop  <badlop@process-one.net>
 
+	* src/odbc/ejabberd_odbc.erl: Start ODBC explicitely because
+	Erlang R12 doesn't start automatically like in R11 and
+	older (thanks to Sergei Golovan)(EJAB-541)
+
 	* src/ejabberd.hrl: Removed unused ejabberd_debug and
 	PRIVACY_SUPPORT. Reordered the remaining options
 
diff --git a/src/odbc/ejabberd_odbc.erl b/src/odbc/ejabberd_odbc.erl
index 3a028359e..a1717a665 100644
--- a/src/odbc/ejabberd_odbc.erl
+++ b/src/odbc/ejabberd_odbc.erl
@@ -246,6 +246,7 @@ execute_transaction(State, F, NRestarts) ->
 %% part of init/1
 %% Open an ODBC database connection
 odbc_connect(SQLServer) ->
+    application:start(odbc),
     case odbc:connect(SQLServer,[{scrollable_cursors, off}]) of
 	{ok, Ref} ->
 	    erlang:monitor(process, Ref),